


Countdown

by honekitteh



Series: Come What May [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical levels of poor decision-making, F/M, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, POV First Person, Rating May Change, Romance, Ziost (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2020-09-23 04:28:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20334070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honekitteh/pseuds/honekitteh
Summary: A distress call leads the Jedi Battlemaster to Ziost, but time is running out.  Follows the storyline of The Rise of the Emperor and inserts missing scenes.





	1. In Media Res

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First installment of an actual chaptered fic in this fandom. Hopefully there will be more in the future. Future chapters will raise the rating to M/E.

How did I get to this point? That is an excellent question. One would expect the so-called Hero of Tython to have a far more heroic introduction. Jump in to save the day. Say something suave or clever. Jyana Kai, the “famous” Jedi Battlemaster who was reported to have killed the Sith Emperor would be able to jump into the fray and defeat anything.

Sure, you would think that.

Instead I was standing underneath a domed barrier with SIS Agent Theron Shan, just waiting. My bruises had bruises; my mental defenses were on high guard. He didn’t look too much better but calling down Archiban Frodrick “Doc” Kimble, the most humble doctor I’ve ever known, from the orbital station was out of the question. 

He straightened up after ensuring the shield was properly set and looked to me. “Okay. We should wait until they’re good and close.” 

I closed my eyes briefly, allowing my senses to reach out to get a good feel for how much time we had. It wasn’t much. I moved slightly closer to Theron and said softly, “I wasn’t sure when I’d run into you again. Not the greatest circumstances, but still.” I very nearly reached to him but halted myself with a small glance behind me. It wasn’t my fellow Jedi and closest friend Kira Carsen though that I sensed when I could feel we weren’t alone.

He offered a weak but knowing smile. “Maybe next time the lives of an entire world won’t be in danger – but, yeah, feeling’s mutual.”

I felt my heart flip flop a bit at his smile and met his with my own. Soon though, I could feel them. His amber eyes shifted from mine to behind me. Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I took a deep breath, then reopened them to follow his gaze. Kira had already drawn her dual-saber, its green light reflecting against the metallic floor.

Theron pulled out his data pad and started tapping. “Okay, here comes the puppet brigade. Fingers crossed…”

It was a fairly sizeable group, Imperials, Republic troops, and even some Jedi. I silently cursed the Chancellor and added it to the growing list of matters I will add to a report, should I bother to file one. At this particular moment, the choice words I had planning were significantly less Jedi than they had been the beginning of this entire fiasco. The horde moved closer and Theron triggered the device.

That Theron even had to modify it to be non-lethal was not lost on me. As I saw the soldiers all be stunned and fall to the ground, I could not help but wonder what the result would have been had that modification not been made. The Empire, putting a weapon in one of its capital cities with the capability to kill a vast amount of their own citizens? If they had one of these in New Adasta, they could have it on Kass City, or in a number of other cities. But why? Because of riots? Gee, I wonder why anyone would riot against a ruling body that had no regard for their lives.

My eyes glanced over to a Republic soldier that had collapsed. Were we even better? The Republic should be better than this. Theron followed my eyes and let the shield dome collapse. He approached the soldier and knelt. “This one was closet, took the biggest hit.” He reached for his neck, checking his pulse as I walked up beside him. I looked out towards the door and across the landscape of unconscious bodies. “Still alive,” Theron confirmed, relief in his voice, “We did it! Let’s just hope we got all of them.”

“Let’s hope,” I murmured, still scanning the surroundings. Something still felt off. This moment was far from over, I could feel it.

“We should call Lana now, see if she has a plan for what’s next.”

The bodies began to float in the air. “I have a better idea,” a booming male imperial voice spoke through a woman sauntering onto the platform. With a small flick of a hand motion, the bodies crashed back away from her, clearing a path. Her eyes yellow and wild, she smirked as she drew her lightsaber.

“Master Surro.” Theron’s entire stance sunk and he moved to stand between me and the unconscious puppet army and the approaching Jedi Master. “No...” I lightly reached an arm to his shoulder, trying to pull him back and shift him behind me, but he stood his ground.

“Watching you believe you had a chance; it’s amused me.” Master Surro raised her hand sluggishly as if it were pulled by string, the Force lifting a dazed Imperial lieutenant into a sitting position. “Now this whole charade is pathetic.”

I shifted my own position, trying to assess the situation and moved in front of Theron. Not soon enough, as Master Surro summarily executed the dazed man she’d just set up. The range of emotions in the man beside me went from shock, to horror, to anger. It took a great deal of my own willpower and Force meditation to not absorb Theron’s pain and have it fuel me and complement the dread that I felt; the very dread I’ve been feeling rising since the moment I’d received his distress holo.

Master Surro’s lips turned in a cruel sneer. “Now, how do you wish to die? In combat or on your knees?”

Lana Beniko, Sith Lord and Director of Sith Intelligence, raced from within the building, lightsaber drawn and poised to attack.

“Go away, little Sith.” Master Surro easily shoved the approaching Sith Lord with a shove. Theron moved in front of me again and drew his weapon but was immediately lifted in the air. He gave me a wincing glance before he was unceremoniously thrown against the wall and crashed the ground. I looked between Lana and Theron and took the last reserves of my energy to take a deep breath. 

> _Emotion, yet peace._
> 
> _Ignorance, yet knowledge._
> 
> _Passion, yet serenity._
> 
> _Chaos, yet harmony._
> 
> _Death, yet the Force._

Glancing back to Master Surro, I furrowed my brow and drew both my shoto. The Emperor controlled puppet smirked. “This has nothing to do with your friends. This is you and I.”

Igniting my sabers, I leaped into the air.

* * *

So how did I get to this point? I guess I could start from the beginning…

At some point in my early life, I was brought to Hasshimut to take up training to be a Jedi. I have no recollection of much before this point, no memory of a mother or a father. The Jedi didn’t see a need to enlighten me and eventually I never truly thought to ask. Perhaps that was a mistake looking back.

But I digress. While that may be the beginning of my story, it is not the beginning of this particular story.

Approximately a year or so ago I became more than what was called the Hero of Tython. I was now the Battlemaster, a reward for helping bring together both Empire and Republic to defeat Revan and to attempt to stop Vitiate from regaining power. The latter failed however, and a team had been put together to continue trying to find out where he’d gone. 

“I’ll get the shuttle started,” Kira stated and walked towards the shuttles at the edge of the camp.

Not a second later, I felt another hand brush mine, startling me out of my thoughts and I turned around. “Theron?”

Theron Shan smiled a bit awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. “Jedi Battlemaster, huh?”

I shuffled my feet and looked down. “Yeah, that surprised me too.”

“I suppose we’re both going to be pretty busy.”

“Guess so…” I looked back over the ridge across the lush green jungle moonscape of Yavin IV. I took a deep breath as the wind blew through my hair.

“So Jy… I guess this is...”

I spun quickly and grabbed his neck and pulled him down into a kiss. He startled, but then opened his mouth and met my tongue with his own. He wrapped his arms around me, one of his hands lowering to my waist, palm spread out slightly as one of his fingers slightly hooked underneath my belt. A flash of memory of this morning where a very similar kiss led into a shuttle caused my cheeks to heat up slightly. Slowly easing myself out of the thought, on how much I wanted to get lost in his arms again, I lowered my hands to rest on his chest and pulled out of the kiss, both of us breathless. I attempted to play it cool as I said, “Don’t be a stranger, Agent Shan.”

He smiled softly and his eyes seemed to twinkle as he leaned his head against mine. He traced his fingers against my cheek and whispered softly, “I won’t.”

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes and wondered when I’d drifted off. The pilot chair wasn’t the most comfortable place to nap, but I supposed I was tired. Pinching the bridge of my nose I leaned back in the seat and sorted through my thoughts. The _Defender _was quiet as it usually was when I opted to take the night shift. No bickering over space or Doc being a bit confused why he was suddenly thinking of all his old ex-girlfriends. I usually used this time to meditate.

Or accidentally fall asleep and dream about...

It’d been months without a holo. Just a small message about actually having caf with his mother. That’s progress though, so I don’t begrudge him that. It’s not like I’d entirely made a lot of time to reach out either, so I couldn’t pin it all on him. Flying from planet to planet, seeing where I can lend my hand with the war effort or even some of the little things like Master Orgus reminded me, didn’t always lend me a lot of time to go to Carrick Station or Coruscant just to see what a good-looking SIS Agent was up to.

The planet I was in orbit of wasn’t extremely remarkable, though that was from the eyes of someone who had been staring at it for the last five days. It was an unnamed Jovian type gas giant, swirling with green and teal colors of gas. It had two ringed belts, one full of asteroids and the other vibrant and as colorful as the world surrounding it. The two rings intersected in an X shape. 

There has been a mine there within the asteroid belt, though it had been long abandoned many years ago. There were some fairly rare minerals that had been mined from within the asteroids and within the gas giant itself. There were numerous reports of a space whale like creature called Purrgils that frequented this system as well. Those creatures were apparently fairly notorious for knocking spacers out of hyperspace so I had to fly carefully in this region. I vaguely recalled images of them, which reminded me of something I used to dream of as a child. The dreams didn’t make them out to be a menace, but no one ever said spacers told accurate tales.

The Council wanted me to send a few probes within the system to assess its strategic worth. An odd task for the Jedi Battlemaster I thought. I’m a Jedi, not a Scientist. I solved problems easier with a lightsaber. But I could sense there was definitely more within this system than just a simple mineral assessment. Though this seemed it would have been better to just send an actual expert in this field. Everything I found I just forwarded to Barsen’thor Sheridan to show to her scientist companion, Tharan Cedrix.

I thought I caught a blip of a lifesign flying into the gas giant when suddenly, a holo comm started breaking through. Staticky at first, I fiddled with the settings.

“--repeat: Repubic call sign Aurek Nen—hey! Finally!”

It felt like time stopped. I was walking through a desolated world: buildings, ground, even the sun all washed out in shades of brown and grey. My own bright white clothing, faded with the terrain. As soon as the vision hit, it was over, and I heard Theron’s voice trying to get my attention.

Snapping out of it, I took a quick breath and quickly responded, “Theron. Are you all right?”

His voice came across frantic. “That would be a negative, Master Jedi! I’m in Imperial space, over Ziost. Tried to slip in, help out my ground team, but I used the wrong set of clearance codes and shields are low!”

I furrowed my brow slightly but tried to keep mostly calm. “Focus on getting yourself to safety, then we’ll talk. “

“No, you really need to hear what I have to say. I was getting reports: demented soldiers; slave and civilian populations under fire. Had suspicions of what it meant, but I wasn’t sure.” My heart sunk even lower as he continued speaking. “I sent a team in dark to investigate, maybe handle it, but it’s all gone out of control now. I think it’s him. The Emperor.”

“I’m supposed to be the first one you contact when it comes to him, not your last resort,” I snapped.

“I should have said something—I know.”

I closed my eyes briefly to try to settle my own racing heartbeat.

He continued, “Sending through the right set of clearance codes along with the coordinates to meet my-- “ There was a loud explosion and he lost balance as his ship rattled. “I’m hit! Going to try to land this thing! Don’t come looking for me, I’ll—”

“Theron? Theron, come in!” I frantically tried to get the signal back. When that didn’t work, I just mashed the buttons on console and the _Defender_ quickly jumped into hyperspace.


	2. Reunion

“I sensed our course has changed. What’s going on?” Kira walked onto the bridge and stood behind me. I gave her a simple nod as I watched the colors of hyperspace on the screen.

“Pandemonium is a better name, it’s at least somewhat pronounceable,” I heard Doc’s voice behind me.

“Phelgethon fits better,” the deep imperial cadence retorted. Lord Scourge, the former Emperor’s Wrath, didn’t hold any emotion in his voice, so it was difficult to tell if he was teasing the human doctor or not.

“Ph.. Phel… That sounds like something is stuck in your throat or you’re coming down with a cold.”

“That would be impossible.”

“Just saying…”

Kira laughed looking back at the two men who entered the bridge, “You have a hard enough time saying Barsen’thor when we’re meeting with the Council.”

“What is it with Jedi and Sith with their impossible titles?”

Kira rolled her eyes and took the seat opposite me and looked at the controls. “Ziost?”

Lord Scourge tilted his head. “We’re headed to Ziost?”

I took a deep breath. “Theron called for backup.”

Doc quickly responded, “Think he will need medical attention?”

“It’s Theron, so likely,” Kira stated with a small chuckle. The small laugh she shared with Doc stopped though as she looked over at me. “Jyana? What’s…” Her words stopped as soon as we left hyperspace and started to enter orbit over the blue world of Ziost.

Suddenly all that was let out was a simple, “Oh…”

My heart sunk as well. The presence was unmistakable, the darkness within the force encircled the blue globe in front of us. I kept getting flashes of images: blue turning to grey, green turning to grey, everything living turning to ash. My hands balled into fists on the controls.

It was Scourge who broke the silence. “We’re too late… his plan is already in motion…”

I closed my eyes. “We have to try.”

“The odds of his survival are…”

“Screw the odds, we have to save this world, whatever it takes.”

Kira started softly, “Jyana…”

“This isn’t about Theron… this is about the Emperor.”

Scourge and Kira shared a brief look and nodded. I moved to stand up and started walking back to my quarters to grab my shoto and cold weather gear. The others followed me. As I walked, Scourge spoke, “Teeseven and Kira should accompany you. The rest of us could come easily under his influence if my sense is correct.”

I nodded my agreement, but Doc spoke up, “I’m sure they would need medical…”

“No. The risk is too great.”

The medic opened his mouth, but Lord Scourge quickly ushered him away as I began to get my kit together and throw on my hooded coat.

Kira put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m with you, Jyana. As always.”

Without looking back at her, I put my hand over top her hand. “I know.”

She sighed softly, “What if we can’t stop him?”

“We’ll sort that out when it comes.”

“And Theron?”

I closed my eyes, trying to reach out my senses. There was a part of me that was certain I’d know if he lived or died, but I wasn’t entirely sure if we were connected in that way. I mean, we were connected somehow, but…

“Jyana?”

“I… We’ll sort that out later too. Right now, the Emperor.”

“Guess we’ll sort out the lack of holoing ‘til he’s in trouble when we get there?”

I made a small chuckle.

“See, got a laugh. I’m sure he’s fine.”

I nodded and looked back at her and smiled. “Let’s get to work.”

* * *

_Imperial military forces on Ziost have ceased responding to orbital comm signals. Reports indicate the military has turned on the civilian populace. An Imperial military outpost may yield more information. A transport is available for departure._

* * *

I pulled my hood over my head, shivering slightly from the cold as it hit my skin, as I stepped out of the shuttle. I could feel the waves of chaos surrounding me. The Dark Side of the Force, ever present on Ziost as Lord Scourge had warned us, was present. It took a bit of willpower to put it to the back of my mind and then I realized my eyes were frozen shut and I looked out.

Soldiers were firing their blasters at civilians; civilians were firing back. None of them were in control of their actions. I could feel the power of their puppet master. I looked over at Kira who stepped out of the shuttle after me. Her face was white, clearly sensing what I was. She adjusted a fairly sizable bag around her belt awkwardly.

“What is with that bag?” I asked, deciding to ignore the other bantha in the room.

She sighed with great exasperation. “Doc insisted. If he wasn’t going to be able to come down, we had to take these.”

“How many kolto injections are there?”

“I lost count at 5 if I’m completely honest. Could be 20 or so?”

“Why would we even need that many?”

Kira gave me a blank stare. “Have you met yourself? That doesn’t even include the chance we find Theron...”

I pursed my lips. “I cannot deny your point, even as much as I want to.”

The astromech T7-01, the first friend I made when I came to Tython to complete my training, rolled out of the shuttle and beeped his intent to head towards the outpost. Kira and I nodded to each other and followed him, attempting to not draw too much attention to our movements. I pulled my hood closer around my face, shielding myself from the chill wind. Kira pulled up her scarf around her nose and put the goggles on over her eyes. I frowned and looked in my pack. To this she handed me mine and I worked on getting those on.

Somedays, I wondered who took care of who when it came to Kira and I.

I pulled out my scanner to follow the signal that T7 was very clearly following. We ducked against the building, watching the soldiers as they shambled. They looked like they were looking for prey and weren’t very picky as to what kind to have. I took a few deep breaths as we pushed on forward. I slipped slightly, barely managing falling into a snow drift by probably two inches. Another glance at Kira was met by a slight point toward her kolto pouch.

Sighing I took another look at the signal. I couldn’t get a sense on much of anything beyond the cacophony of blaster fire, dying men, screaming children, and a complete feeling of helplessness. T7 beeped a warning as we rounded a corner. Speeders and shuttles were crashed outside the vehicle bay that the signal was coming from. We moved inside, the droid moving quickly to investigate any potential console.

“Seems like we made some friends,” Kira spoke up.

“We need to reevaluate our standards,” I sighed as the soldiers started shooting at us.

Kira and I made quick work with a few flicks of our lightsabers. The soldiers came in waves of three. I frowned looking down at the last one I had to pierce through the heart.

No one deserved this fate. Sure, they were Imperials and would have attacked me anyway, but I would have preferred they’d had a choice to do so. These did not.

T7 beeped down to us from over a balcony. I nodded to Kira who remained behind as I followed T7 up the ramp and took a look at the holoconsole. It was busted, T7 beeped his frustration. There was no way for him to access any of the data that could have been held here. This bay was a complete wreck. I took a sigh and made a quick call to the ship.

“Scourge, come in.”

“Reading.”

“You were right, they’re all possessed.”

“Slaves to his will. He is attempting the ritual again. When he is done, there will be nothing left.”

Suddenly I knew what I felt in the back of my head and cut the comms. The presence was unmistakable and it was overpowering. For a moment I wondered how long I’d need to keep him out of my own head, but then that slow build up behind my eyes moved away.

Like this was something we’d rehearsed, but we obviously hadn’t, both Kira and I said in unison, “I can feel your presence Vitiate.”

Three people entered the Vehicle Bay one at a time, their voice theirs, but not under their own control. Their eyes glowed silver and I could feel the aura radiating off of them, flowing off of them in red waves in my Force sight. The first that spoke was a male Imperial Commando. “My little insect, no doubt here to drone and flutter once more.”

A female soldier followed him. “Dromund Kass, the Yavin moon... It must not be clear to you yet. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”

_Seriously, Vitiate, a monologue?_ I ignited my shoto but slightly startled as I noticed the last one who moved in.

A Jedi. The way he carried himself suggested one who specialized in Form III, Soresu.

“That’s all right though. Seeing you, it’s like visiting with a forgotten friend. I’m oddly pleased you’re here. You’ll bear witness to a world’s end if you survive long enough.”

As the group moved to attack Kira, I leaped off the balcony.

The jedi focused his attention on me, while Kira made fairly quick work of the Imperials. He swung his yellow blade vertically at my head which I parried with my purple shoto. The shoto were much shorter than his longer normal bladed lightsaber, but I’d found their mobility gave me a slight edge when I dual-wielded. Since the first lightsaber I made on Tython had fallen on hard times… okay I honestly can’t remember what happened to it. I just remembered the Masters sighing heavily at me and pointing me where I could find more materials to make a new one. At the time I thought it had been a punishment, to not have enough material for one, but after time, I instead found it a blessing. It wasn’t the size that mattered to a weapon, after all. It was how you used it.

With a motion of his hands, the he used the Force to knock me back. I smacked into corner of the ramp. With a grunt I tossed my shoto at him. He parried one of them, but the other struck true. As they returned to my hands, I leaped back into the air and met his blade with mine.

It was a whirl of blades. Purple and yellow reflecting off the damaged walls of the vehicle bay. He fought more aggressive than I would have expected. Had he been under his own power, I would have expected far more defensive maneuvers. If it had been, we might have been a bit more evenly matched. One slight miscalculation proved fatal, and I cut his lightsaber in two, and he fell. His eyes looked up at the ceiling, unfocused, exhausted, and they changed from silver to brown. As he took his last breaths, he gasped out, “He’s gone... I can... I can finally...”

I felt the life force leave the man. I looked down at my shoto, which had fallen to the floor at some point. I removed my goggles and lowered the scarf from around my mouth. Frowning, I reached my hand towards the Jedi’s eyes, but the back of my mind sent a warning through me. Instead of getting a chance to pay my respects to a man who fought well despite his circumstance, I stood, taking my sabers back in my hands. “More of you already?” I stated, “I suppose I should be flattered.”

I ignited my shoto but before Kira or I even moved, an orangish red lightsaber made quick work of the enemies just outside the Vehicle Bay. Then the blonde Sith Lord made her way towards the entrance, her green cape flicking behind her. Her yellow eyes looked tired as they fell on me.

“So my senses haven’t betrayed me. It really is you.”

“Lana Beniko.”

Lana pinched the bridge of her nose for a few seconds before stating, “You don’t belong here, Jedi. You shouldn’t have come.”

Before I could retort, Kira approached Lana and I could tell that the redhead sensed the Sith Lord’s exhaustion. “It’s nice to see a friendly face. I’ve missed you.”

I simply blinked.

Lana exasperatedly responded, “I’m trying to avert a mass catastrophe while keeping the most powerful mind in the galaxy out of my head. I… I can’t think about that.”

Kira let out a breath of air. “You don’t gotta tell me twice,” she muttered.

I blinked between the two, then looked back to Lana. “What do you mean, we don’t belong here?”

Lana’s expression was somewhere between exhaustion and exasperation and gave me a non-committal response and put her hand up to her temple, as if she was listening to incoming communications and status updates. She then looked back to me.  
Before she said anything further, I cut in, “In case you might have forgotten, standing up to the Emperor is kind of my job. And I’m not about to start backing down from him now.” I raised an eyebrow and looked Lana over. “And I’m thinking you could use the help.”

“Well, you’re not wrong about that. As you can see, things are already out of hand.”

“Seems we’re not the only Jedi here,” Kira pointed out, looking back at Master Garault’s body behind us.

“His mind was not his own.” Lana sighed heavily. “He belonged to the Sixth Line.”

“Sixth line… I’ve never heard of it.”

Lana raised an eyebrow. “They’re a team of Jedi commandos working in secret for the SIS. They follow their own addendum to the Jedi Code, hence the name.”

“There is no contemplation, there is only duty,” A bald man in a crisp imperial uniform with a tech brace around his head approached. I pursed my lips, trying to hide my on distaste for the “there is no” version of the Jedi Code while he continued, “A great point of view—so long as they’re working for you.” He looked around the room and then addressed Lana. “Pardon the interruption. I sent a probe droid to look into that crashed shuttle, Minister Beniko. It’s empty.”

I looked back at Kira and shared a raised eyebrow with her before looking back to the imperials.

“Agent Kovach, this is the former ally I’ve mentioned,” Lana stated, “Right now, we all want the same thing, so I suggest we work together.”

I lowered my hood and tilted my head. “He called you ‘minister.’”

With a dismissive wave, Lana replied, “Yes, he did.”

Agent Kovach continued, “We know Theron Shan was on that shuttle. And we know he’s responsible for the Sixth Line being on Ziost in the first place”

I gave Kira a slight glance. A tightness in my chest that had been forming since I’d landed on the planet only seemed to increase its pressure.

Lana rubbed her temples. “So far, Theron has only added to our troubles. He’d better not be here to cause any more.”

“Theron’s here to stop the Emperor, same as me,” I replied quickly.

“Vitiate is not our Emperor. Not anymore.” Lana gave a glance around the vehicle bay and motioned to the numerous bodies. “As you’ve witnessed, Vitiate is taking hold of an increasing number of soldiers and Sith. His goal continues to be the accumulation of power. Agent?”

Kira and I glanced at each other and then back to the Agent.

“The dark side is strong on Ziost. Using the outpost’s resources, our former Emperor can massacre the defenseless to fuel him. The more powerful he becomes, the more people he can control. He will keep on killing until nothing’s left.”

Kira whispered to me, “Isn’t that exactly what Scourge said happened before?”

I simply nodded and moved to speak, but Lana was having a short conversation on a call. “Yes, I’m on my way,” she spoke into her communicator. “I’m needed everywhere, all at once. I’ve already lingered too long. Agent Kovach has a plan to help stem the bloodshed.” She gave a kurt nod and turned on her heel as she left the vehicle bay.

Agent Kovach watched Lana as she left, a little too closely. I raised an eyebrow and looked back at Kira. T7 beeped a question as well.

“Agent?”

As soon as he seemed sure she was gone, he began speaking quickly, “After the Yavin event, I was sent here to infiltrate Sith Intelligence. I work for Theron Shan. In fact, we were supposed to meet up here.”

“If you know where he is, now would be the time to say so,” I snapped. After the words were out of my mouth I felt a small presence in the Force, Kira. Mostly just telling me to relax subtly. I took a deep breath and tried to offer an apologetic smile to my response.

Either Agent Kovach didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because he just responded, “I haven’t been able to reach him. Not since the crash. Best not to think about that now, I guess.”  
I frowned and looked down.

Kira stepped forward and spoke up. “Lana might seem like the nicest Sith Lord ever, but don’t thinks he won’t eviscerate you if she finds you out. Or worse.”

I looked at Kira and blinked slowly, then looked back to the agent, who simply shrugged. “I know all the risks that come with my line of work. It helps not to think about them either.”

I looked back towards the Jedi laying lifeless behind me. “What was his name?”

“Master Garault.”

I moved back towards Master Garault’s body and took a knee. He was free of Vitiate, but at what cost. Sighing I finally reached to his forehead, meditated on his memory in the Force for a few seconds. Then I took the tips of my fingers and lowered his eyelids over his eyes.

“The outpost armory, it’s wide open right now,” Agent Kovach continued, “Anyone can get in there. We need to lock it down.”

T7 beeped an agreement and I stood up and pulled my hood back over my head. “Then point the way.”

“I’m on it.”

* * *

I hadn’t been watching where my feet were going as we worked our way through the outpost towards where Agent Kovach indicated the armory would be. It was miraculous that I was only in a snow drift and not somewhere more unfortunate. A hand reached down and took mine. Before allowing myself to be lifted up, I reached out with my senses to be certain that it was Kira and not someone who was just going to pull me out and make me dead. With some grumbling, I allowed myself to be pulled up.

“Kolto?”she asked after I straightened up.

I muttered, “I’m not hurt. Just embarrassed.”

“You should be, that was completely hilarious.”

“Ha ha. If this world wasn’t utter chaos…”

“Yes I know. This way.” Kira and I quickly worked our way to the armory, T7 beeping locations and parameter warnings along the way.

By the time we got there, Imperial officers were already in the armory. At least, it’s more possible that these officers had been originally stationed here, long before this whole mess started. Now, they just no longer had wills of their own. I could sense Vitiate’s hold on each one of them. They could sense us as well. Upon our entrance, we were immediately under fire and T7 very quickly attempted to evade attention. If they had been normal imperial troops, operating under their own free will, they would not have ignored the droid. They seemed more interested in humanoid lifeforms. I assume Vitiate can’t really accumulate more power from the deaths of droids.

One, two, they fell to Kira’s dual-bladed lightsaber. Three, four, my twin shoto ended more. Now it was the Quartermaster who stood between us and our goal, someone who probably just simply wanted to put in an honest days work, go home, see family, friends, have a nice drink, have a great meal, and then repeat the pattern over again.

The poor soul didn’t stand a chance against Vitiate’s control. Nor did he stand a chance against Kira and my blades. After the haze of battle was lifted, I slowly made a point to close every one of their eyes.

No one deserved this. Not even Imperials.

Agent Kovach had made it into the armory while I had paid my respects to the deceased. He quickly moved to a console to lock the building down. “You sure cleared a path out there. That’s good… but it’s bad, too.” I raised an eyebrow at him and made a motion for him to explain, which he figured out without me needing to say anything, thankfully. “Each time a pawn’s killed, Vitiate gets a little bit stronger. Not as much as when they kill, but… That’s what Minister Beniko says, anyway.”

Pulling off my hood and cold weather protection again so I could cool down from the exertion, I studied the Agent, tilting my head. “So we have to stop them without killing them.”

“Or we destroy Vitiate. Not that anyone seems to know how to do that…”

A pressure built up in the back of my head. “Agent, we’ve got company.”

“Almost there…” he worked quickly at the console. The door opened and the force-field was just pulled up just in time for a dark skinned, armored jedi to waltz in to meet. “Master Surro,” Agent Kovach stated, looking downcast, “The Sixth Line commander.”

“This one’s my favorite so far,” Vitiate poke through her voice, “Even now, she struggles. You know, she’s done some terrible things in the Republic’s name.”

I wrinkled my nose and let out a breath. “I’m the one you want. Release Master Surro and the others. Take me instead.”

“Again?” I flinched slightly but held my ground, waiting. “No. I don’t think so. When this world turns to red and you choke on torrents of blood, remember that this was your chance to flee.”


	3. Escalation

“Again?” I flinched slightly but held my ground, waiting. “No. I don’t think so. When this world turns to red and you choke on torrents of blood, remember that this was your chance to flee.” Master Surro then put her hands to her head as she continued speaking. “A chance I… gave…” She collapsed to the floor, the silver of her eyes giving way to a more natural hue. She took a few deep breaths. “There is no… contemplation… there is only… duty…” she screamed and then collapsed further into an unconscious heap. 

The forcefield was between me and the Jedi Master. I wanted to reach to her, to help. I wasn’t entirely sure what I could do at that exact moment.

“We’re wasting time here,” Kovach interrupted my thoughts with rational logic, “The armory’s safe. You go ahead. I’ll be close behind.”

I nodded to Kovach and then looked back to Master Surro. The Sixth Line Commander was no longer there, vanished somehow. I frowned, wondering how she’d managed to get up and slip out in the split second I had turned to speak to the Agent. The stealthier ways of the Force tended to elude me on most days, requiring a bit more concentration than today’s events appeared to allow. I sighed a bit and looked over the next objective. I needed to scan for the air defenses around the Outpost so we could take them down. This required a set of quality micro-binoculars. Thankfully a pair of them were readily available and Kira and I picked them up, attaching them to our belts and then we wrapped back up for the cold outdoors. 

I tried to walk more carefully this time, avoiding large piles of snow and more slippery areas. Sadly, I wasn’t entirely prepared to trip over a dead imperial officer. Which, of course I should have been prepared, there were quite a few of them. I heard static coming from this particular corpse’s comm. I knelt carefully, adjusting my scarf over my nose, despite the stench of death and decay not quite setting in due to the body’s newness with its current state. I picked up the comm and listened to the voice over.

“If anyone can hear me: I have received clearance, but air defenses are not reading me as friendly. I cannot land. Repeat: I cannot land.”

I frowned slightly and picked up the dead imperial's data pad. According to Imperial regulations, evacuation protocols for this area required the use of a nearby emergency landing field. The former Emperor’s new friends seemed to have interrupted the evacuation proceedings and disabled area landing beacons, surprising no one.

“Teeseven, I’m forwarding you some coordinates. I’ll be rerouting the data we get as we scan the air defenses, but until then, I need you to see what you can do to repair these Landing Zone Beacons.”

The droid beeped acknowledgement, then pointed out that Evacuation Droids were also not properly deployed in the area.

“Kira, see what you can do about those Evacuation Droids.”

“On it, boss.”

I took up a small perch on the wide railing outside of one of the buildings and scanned the horizon. There were four air defense satellites that I needed to scan to secure the link. I was going to scan those links, reroute them to T7, who would then connect them back towards the Administration Office Agent Kovach had indicated as our next meet up point. 

“That’s one Evacuation Droid reassembled and back on task,” Kira announced over the commlink, “It’s still a right mess out here.”

I sighed as I studied the next satellite and turret. “I don’t think this is going to be over any time soon.”

“Lord Scourge doesn’t think we should linger too long. He says it’s too late.”

“What do you think we should do, Kira?”

“Have we heard anything from Theron yet?”

“No. Nothing.” My heart fell at the thought, but I just had one more satellite to find.

“Well, I think we should stay. Not just to make sure he’s okay… but all these people. None of them deserve this.”

“I agree.”

“To hell with Scourge’s ‘practicality.’”

“Watch behind you!”

Kira startled and suddenly force pushed a group of soldiers away from her, knocking them down.

“Unconscious?”

“Yes.”

“Okay good, let’s try to avoid killing anymore people if we can at all help it.”

“Already on it, boss.”

T7 beeped an alert. I looked up at a display. Emergency Form 98BG-HM7 was filed. This designated the current emergency as a hostile invasion by ground forces. Power was routed to the ground defense network to repel the invaders. The readings on the power draw indicated that the ground defense network was not in place. T7 made a comment about the protocols were not being kept. Honestly, I thought it was good that the ground-defense turrets were offline. I didn’t need additional bolts to deflect and dodge.

Once both T7 and Kira acknowledged their tasks were completed, we made it to the Administrative Office. We quickly made our way to the appropriate console and shut down the air defense network. Agent Kovach was not far behind and took over the console from me once my task had been completed.

The relief in his voice was evident. “I can confirm it: defenses are down. Between those weapons and the armory, a lot of their killing power’s out of their hands now.” Both Kira and I shared a small sigh of relief. Agent Kovach continued on, “Should be able to start evacuation efforts as well. The fewer potential targets on Ziost, the better.”

I nodded and leaned back against the wall as the agent worked on the console.

The squish of the door opening startled everyone in the Administrative Office. Kovach drew his blaster and Kira drew her saber. I, on the other hand, just froze.

Looking every bit the walking disaster we had expected, Theron Shan walked in the door with a smirk saying, "Hope you haven’t had too much fun without me.”

There was a collective sigh of relief and Kira just rubbed her face with her palm.

I approached him slowly. “Thought I’d lost you. Nice to see I was wrong.”

“Yeah,” Theron offered a small smile, walking slowly towards me as well, “Circumstances aside...”

“Sir...” Kovach cut in. “I thought it would be wise to disclose my role in all this, so I did. I hope that’s all right.”

“Sure, of course. Saves us the trouble of playacting our way into an alliance in front of someone we can trust.”

My face heated up a bit and I took a glance down as Theron’s gloved hand brushed mine. I then studied the array of bruises around his face. I was sure there were more hidden somewhere underneath his trademark red coat and light green shirt. I very nearly reached towards them, before glancing towards where Kovach was. The Agent had moved back to the console to monitor the current situation and wasn’t really looking back to where Theron and I were. I sighed slightly and said, “You look a little worse for wear, Theron.”

"Yeah. Tell me about it,” Theron replied with a sigh, lightly hooking my pinky with his own, after sharing a glance at the Agent’s location. “Way things are out there; I can’t believe I even made it this far.”

I glanced down at our hands, hooked together by pinkies, and allowed myself a small smile before looking back at him.

“Soon as I crashlanded, the Emperor’s puppets started coming for my shuttle, just like that. Maybe figured on some easy kills inside.”

I frowned but nodded. If I was honest with myself, which sometimes was not the case, I was just glad he was here.

“Did the only thing I could think of,” he continued, “Rigged the ship to overload, fry everything in and around it. Tried to shield myself but still scrambled half my implants.”

I furrowed my brow. “And that stopped the attack.”

Theron rose an eyebrow at the statement. “They went down, yeah. Some of them got back up, but they seemed out of it.” Theron thought about it for a moment before adding, “Not possessed—dazed... OW!”

“Good to see you too, Theron,” Kira smirked at him, twirling the now empty kolto injector in her fingers.

Theron opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Agent Kovach shouting, “Intrusion!”

Theron shot a glare at Kira and rubbed his neck after letting go of my pinky. He then moved over to the console next to the other agent. “Vitiate’s pawns...?”

Kovach nodded, then tilted his head. “I have a thought.”

I raised an eyebrow watching the agents work on the console. Looking over on the view screen I saw a couple of Imperial soldiers approaching the building. With a push of the button, Kovach had them electrocuted. The agents then stepped away from the console and went out to the door to investigate. After a few moments, the two of them dragged the stunned imperial soldiers up to the conference table.

Kira moved over to help them put bindings on them as they situated them in their chairs. She smirked over at Theron, “Don’t holo, don’t write.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Been a little busy…” he muttered trying to keep the unconscious Imperial from flopping out of the chair in a heap. The Imperial looked to be one of their officers as opposed to a normal soldier, at least if the markings on his armor gave me any indication. Probably a Lieutenant if I had my imperial officer designations properly memorized. 

“Takes like two seconds to say ‘hi,’” Kira continued.

“Kira, now really isn’t the time,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Fine,” she pouted slightly, but her tone was light and playful.

Theron gave me a slight glance of thanks, but there was an apology behind his eyes I could sense. I just shrugged and gave him a tired smile. He stepped back after securing the Lieutenant and looked across the rest of us. “Be ready for anything…”

The Lieutenant and his fellow officer started to slowly wake up. Blinking a few times, he began to speak as he took in his surroundings. “That was a… a nightmare… What’s?” His gaze started to come into focus, he glanced over between the agents, then his eyes landed on me, and glanced down to my lightsaber. “Is that what this was? Some kind of gutless Jedi mind trick?”

My eye twitched in response and I frowned. Shaking my head, I went to take the bindings off the two officers. “Go, get somewhere safe if you can. Off world would probably be wisest.” The Lieutenant nearly protested for a moment, but I quickly cut him off, “Now, before I change my mind.”

“Change your mind to what?” Theron asked, frowning slightly.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Either keep them bound or execute them. I’d rather not either.”

“Executing them would’ve been pretty cold.”

“And wrong.”

He nodded slowly.

“Though it would’ve given us two less people to have to fight later,” Agent Kovach mentioned as he was studying his console. Theron, Kira, and I just stared at him. He seemed oblivious to it and continued, “So now we know, shock them unconscious and the tie is severed—for a while, at least.” He continued working on the console, his mind obviously working quickly. “Hit enough of them hard enough and they’d be out a good, long while.”

“Yeah, but how do we do that?” Theron fidgeted his feet for a bit, also trying to sort out the problem in his head.

“I have some ideas. I need to consult the New Adasta municipal systems.”

Theron raised his eyebrow at that. “You going to need a hand with that? Some backup?”

“No,” Kovach responded, “I’ll be in touch.” He picked up his data pad and left the Administration building without a further word.

T7 wandered over to take Agent Kovach’s place on the console, Kira right behind him as he plugged in. He beeped confirmations of what was going on around the Outpost.

I watched them for a moment as Theron approached me. I felt my ears heat up a bit as he brushed my hand.

He also gave a glance over to Kira and T7 before looking back at me. “Kovach has been amazing. I just wanted eyes and ears inside Sith Intelligence, and he gets himself saddled up next to Lana.” He chuckled slightly. “Lana Beniko, Minister of Sith Intelligence. Who’d have thought it right? When I met her on Manaan, she was in over her head. Seemed to be at least.”

I smiled, stepping closer to him. “I know what you mean. She’s not always what you’d call direct.”

“You don’t have to tell me. My bruises still have bruises thanks to her little deception on Rishi.”

I reached towards his face, lightly tracing my fingers along the bruises around his implants. He flinched at my initial touch, so I withdrew my hand. The kolto Kira had injected into him seemed to be starting to work its magic, albeit slowly. 

He shook his head at me. I frowned a bit and tilted my head. He made a small motion to his implants and I reached back to touch the bruises. This time instead of the flinch, he leaned into the touch with a sigh. “Still,” he continued, closing his eyes slightly, “Who am I to talk? I should have never sent my team here.”

I frowned shaking my head, leaning in closer to study his injuries.

“I made a bad situation worse, and now...”

“Shh... It’s not the time for blame...”

He smiled lightly, leaning in, his lips lightly touching mine before a beep from the holoconsole startled both of us and we quickly moved at least a meter and a half apart. “... And now I’ve got a priority holocall.” He sighed heavily, his voice heavily dripping with sarcasm, “Great.”

I thought I heard a small giggle and I shot Kira a glare as Theron answered the call. Then I blinked as the Republic’s Supreme Chancellor, Saresh, appeared on the holo.

“You’ve been busy, Agent Shan.” Her voice was accusatory. I blinked and looked between the two of them.

“Chancellor?” He seemed confused. His emotions were a whirlwind of guilt, surprise, concern, and frustration. I tried to clear my mind of my own thoughts and emotions as well as trying not to absorb everything he was feeling at that exact moment.

“An off the books mission to Ziost. A secret team of Jedi that—I don’t even know where to start with you about them—.”

I blinked and looked over at Theron. 

He spoke rapidly in response, “Everything’s happened so fast. You don’t realize—.”

“No, I do realize. I realize that you declined to inform me of a prime opportunity to cripple the Empire and face the Emperor head-on.” _Oh… no…_ I shook my head rapidly, my eyes widening. Saresh either did not notice I was there or did not deem to acknowledge my presence. I suppose it didn’t matter because she kept speaking. “We’re taking advantage of the chaos on Ziost, starting with New Adasta. I expect your cooperation.”

Theron’s face paled. “Wait. Please, before you send the order--”

“You don’t seem to understand, Agent Shan. There’s nothing to argue.”

I stared at the Chancellor, my eyes wider than they had any right to be. I muttered under my breath, “What?”

“Our ships are in orbit,” the Chancellor continued, “The invasion’s already begun.”

The holo communication blinked off. Theron pinched the bridge of his nose and rested one hand on the edge of the console looking down.

My thoughts were going a kilometer a minute. My hands balled into fists for a brief moment, then I released them. I repeated the motion for a good few minutes while I tried to settle down my own thoughts. When they started to coalesce, the just under the skin irritation would not leave. “Well this is just fantastic. Now I have to clean up an even bigger mess,” I growled.

Theron didn’t look at me but muttered in response, “Great, yeah just go ahead and clean up after me.”

“Wait what?” I responded startled, “I was talking about the Chancellor’s brilliant idea to send more soldiers to the slaughterhouse. That’s got nothing to do with you.”

He whirled around at me. “I’m the reason she’s here in the first place.”

Okay, he had a point. “Demented soldiers; slave and civilian populations under fire? You should have called me first.”

“I didn’t know for sure. I had to get more intel before I brought you in on it.”

“And now the Sixth Line are under his control.”

He looked down. “I know…”

“Why didn’t you contact me first? You knew I had experience with this.”

“I didn’t want to bring you in unless I was sure.”

"Are you sure now?”

“Going in alone? You could’ve been hurt or possessed!”

“And you could have died!” I snapped.

He blinked at me. I blinked and looked down and tried to calm my own breathing. “Jyana...” he said softly after what felt like about five or so minutes.

I was silent for another moment before stating simply, “I’m going to New Adasta. Teeseven, stay with Theron. Kira, with me.”

T7 beeped an acknowledgement in a confused and concerned tone while Kira just nodded and tossed her large bag of kolto at Theron. 

He was startled by the toss and it caught him in his face. He barely managed a quick and smooth recovery and did not end up dropping it to the floor. He looked back up from the bag as I had already made it to the door. “Jyana...” Theron continued.

Without looking behind me I just pulled up my hood and walked out into the cold breeze of the Ziost Outpost.


	4. Cacophony

I got off the transport at the edge of the Central District of New Adasta and pulled my hood back over my head. The main metropolis didn’t have the chill that the Outpost had, but it had the cool gusts of wind that was common in most alleys between large buildings. I let the scarf and goggles I’d had to protect my mouth and eyes from the cold hang down around my neck loosely, ready in case they were needed.

Kira and I moved towards the stairway down into the district and were immediately besieged by the feeling of terror surrounding most of the personnel. The lack of control some of them had for their own actions as they cut down another that was trying to escape. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Theron spoke over comms, “Saresh has her forces all over New Adasta. Some of them are possessed now. Made a real mess.”

Kira gave me a glance. I shook my head briefly as I kept my eyes clothed. She sighed a bit and then responded to him, “Are you talking about her now, or you?”

He made an audible sigh which was supplemented by T7’s concerned beeping. “Let’s keep on target. Doesn’t matter how bad things get. We have to put an end to Vitiate’s plan.

“Agreed, but Theron?”

“Go ahead, Kira.”

“Take care of Teeseven. That’s our emotional support astromech droid.”

There was a small but very exhausted chuckle over the comm in response. “Of course.” An audible click as he ended the communication.

“Jy...”

My eyes were closed as I stood over the now dead Imperials. “Let’s stay focused.”

“But...”

“Please.” I slowly opened my eyes, taking another deep breath and descended the stairs into the Central District, running my hand along the railing.

I could hear the sigh in response, but I needed to maintain focus. I’ll sort out, whatever the kriff was going on in my head when I didn’t have to deal with Republic troops who had joined the fray. Chancellor Saresh hadn’t been kidding when she said the invasion had already begun. Of course, this was under the guise of a ‘humanitarian rescue mission.’ Unfortunately, instead of what was intended, the combined Republic and Imperial forces, plus the Sixth Line Jedi commandos provided Vitiate with all the possessed marionettes that he could possibly desire to power himself through the murder of others. Lord Scourge said that was his strategy. He suggested that this was a ritual already in progress. That we were too late.

But I refused to give up.

“This is Lana,” I heard across my comm link, “Agent Kovach may have been hurt, probably worse. I haven’t heard from him, and his tracker’s off.”

I frowned and looked at Kira. Taking a deep breath, I responded, “Thought you’d like to know—Theron’s alive.”

“Yes, I’m aware.” She sounded more exasperated than relieved, then again, at that exact moment, I was right there with her. “The last I heard form Agent Kovach he had a plan involving the city’s electrical grid. I’ll steer you to where he might have gone.” I looked down at my wrist communicator to see the coordinates that she had forwarded, and we cut the communication.

“Electrical Substation,” I stated to Kira, “Should be… past a lot of those possessed guys.”

“This’ll be fun.”

“If you’re going to say we should go to war zones more often…”

“No… definitely not this kind.”

“Just clarifying.” With that last statement, we descended into the cacophony of chaos that was New Adasta’s Central District.

* * *

“Easy there tiger,” Kira stated as I felt a slight pull of the Force, preventing me from going straight into a line of electrical current.

We’d just made it to the Electrical Substation that Lana had directed us to. I was pretty sure it was the right one, because Lana normally doesn’t send us false coordinates. She might have done some underhanded or shady things in the past, but it was evident that now was really not the time for that kind of thing. We’d gotten a little sidetracked from making it straight there though. There were citizens everywhere that weren’t under Vitiate’s direct control that we had to get out of the line of fire. Pretty sure Lord Scourge would have told us to leave them, but I did make it a personal mission to give him a headache by simply being myself. 

I frowned then took a deep breath and looked around the surroundings. “There some kind of way to turn this off? Or we gonna have to jump over it?”

“There seems to be a generator access here on this console,” Kira responded, moving quickly to console and looking over it.

“Can you slice it?”

Kira scoffed. “Please. In my sleep. Theron Shan is not the only slicer you’ve ever worked with.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well any time now would be fantastic.”

“Perfection sometimes takes time.” Kira disabled the generator and the electrical current blocking the route stopped.

“Time, sadly, is a luxury at this point. Not like I doubted your skills.”

Kira shook her head and we moved past the first obstacle. “You know… you’re going to have to talk to him again.”

I sighed heavily. “I know.”

“The situation could have been handled better.”

“It was either snap at him more or just get back to work…” I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stick up as a couple possessed soldiers and reprogrammed droids started shooting at us. I quickly deflected a blast with one of my shoto. “Company!” 

“We’re not done!” Kira shouted back at me as she twirled her dualsaber and vanished from view, only to appear two seconds later behind one of the soldiers.

“Seriously?” I deflected a few more bolts before force leaping to the droids’ location and disabling them with the impact of a Force wave upon my landing.

“You’re going to need to acknowledge what you’re feeling.”

“Is now really the time for this?”

“When else will there be?”

I looked down at the now defeated fallen droids and then back to the bodies of the soldiers. They really hadn’t given Kira any other option. I didn’t blame her. Well not for that. I furrowed my brow and almost make a short response but decided against it.

“Another console to clear up these loose wires’ open current,” Kira announced as she swiftly moved to it and tapped away at the console. She sighed a bit. “Whatever’s there from Yavin, it’s still there. It’s pretty damn obvious. Least it is to me.”

I sighed as well, rubbing my temples. “Maybe sometime when a whole world isn’t relying on us to save it from devastation…”

“Fair point.” With another quick movement over the console and a small kick, Kira had the route cleared again. “I think I see something up ahead.”

I nodded and continued forward now that the path was safe, trying to take in the rest of the surroundings of the substation. 

“Is that Agent Kovach’s voice?” Kira asked quietly as we rounded the last corner. I nodded in confusion as I halted us both at the edge. He was on the holo.

With Chancellor Saresh.

“I tried to reach you, to tell you—this won’t end well,” the agent stated to the twilek chancellor.

“The time for hand-wringing ended when you shut down the Orbital Defense Command Center, Agent. No—before that. When I planted you with Theron Shan.”

I felt Kira’s hand touch my shoulder lightly before I realized I’d clenched my fist. I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes, continuing to listen.

“With respect, you haven’t seen what I have on the ground. The power the Emperor holds—”

“I’m aware, Agent. Now, if you have a report on Sith Intelligence or the SIS, we can talk. But you will not tell me how to fight a war.” The Chancellor shut off the commlink.

Kira gave me a nod and we slowly approached the agent as he muttered under his breath, “Damn. This is bad.”

“That is one way of putting it...” I stated, crossing my arms.

He startled and looked back at us. “I take it you heard all that. Or enough of it.”

“Theron’s relying on you while you’re busy... doing what exactly?” I raised my eyebrow, letting the rest of what was going on in my head remain unspoken.

“My number one goal right now is to stop Vitiate. Judge me all you want, but I’d rather it was while we were dealing with him.” He activated a map and started looking over the Central District of New Adasta, uploading objectives onto a data pad. “I know I’ve made things worse. More innocents are dying because of me, and that’s...” he trailed off then took a deep breath, “Please let me help you.”

I pursed my lips, gave him a swift nod, a slight glance to Kira, then turned on my heel and walked away. I could sense his very audible sigh as I walked away, but at that precise moment, I didn’t care. More people were going to die not only because he’d given the information to Saresh, but because Saresh herself did not listen to on ground intelligence. I was not entirely sure which person I was angrier at anymore.

In the end, I had work to do. Like usual.

“Of course, this has to get more complicated,” Kira muttered as she caught up to me. She was looking over the data pad that she received from Agent Kovach as we worked our way back towards the entrance the Electrical Substation. 

“You’d hate it if we were bored,” I smirked as I found the console that was designated on the instructions.

“You know me.”

I moved my fingers over the console. Agent Kovach’s instructions were direct: release the electrical system dampener lock so that it could be controlled manually. “Okay, that should do it,” I said as I hit the release button. 

“Let’s keep moving,”

We moved our way out of the substation and Kovach called in via our commlink. “Okay. I’ve placed the dampeners on manual. I’ll be controlling them while you alter the makeup of the grid. Once it’s all set, we’ll put a shock into every living thing in New Adasta. Then we’ll figure out what’s next.”

I nodded slowly with a frown and looked at the updated map on my wrist computer. Each of the locations that I needed to go to and power down were clearly labeled. They weren’t extremely far apart either. 

“Electrocute a whole city?” Kira asked.

“Try to stun them at least, yeah.”

“Why does this feel wrong to me?”

“Better than Vitiate feeding on their deaths?”

“True, but still.”

“Yeah, I’m not a huge fan either, but I can’t think of any other way at this moment.”

She nodded and we pressed forward, conveniently dodging someone trying to ram us with a speeder bike. I blinked and looked at the now wreckage that had gone up in a plume of fire and smoke.

“Definitely could do with less people trying to kill us,” I muttered as I got to the first power dampener and started powering it down. 

“That’s one down. I’ve got you covered,” Kovach stated over the comm link to confirm its success.

We quickly moved over to the next sort of coordinates. I saddled myself up to work on the second power dampener as Kira kept an eye out for any potential complications. 

“No, the other one. The other one!” Theron’s voice suddenly came across my comm link.

“Theron?” I asked into the comm, staring at the power dampener I had just disabled.

“Sorry,” he sighed heavily. I could hear T7 beeping some slightly snarky information at him in the background, too far away to make out the exact specifics. “Master Surro took down a squad trying to evac slaves. Then turned on the slaves.” The exhaustion and exasperation were evident in his voice, and I felt a pounding in my heart as he spoke. “Running triage on the survivors. I just wanted to, uh...” He sighed heavily. “Just—good luck, okay?”

I felt heat rise to my cheeks lightly and sighed. “You too.” I looked at the dampener and looked back down at the data pad with my next location. “Oh, and Theron?”

“Yeah?”

“If you need him, Doc’s up on the orbital station.”

“Are you sure he won’t get possessed?”

“You’ve met him, right?”

“Point taken. Yeah, good call.”

“Stay safe.” I hesitated but then allowed myself one more statement, “Please.”

There was a slight pause at the other end of the communication, but then Theron simply responded, “I’ll do my best.”

I took a deep breath and moved over towards the next one. Kira was engaged with a group of Republic Commandos and kept them off me. I frowned and tilted my head, staring at the console for the last dampener. Something had seemed wrong, but then I realized I’d been looking at the wrong part of it. Sighing I disabled it.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Kovach said, “Any more and it’s the dampeners that will take the brunt of the surge. All that’s left is to disable the system failsafe.”

I nodded in acknowledgement. I knew he probably couldn’t see the reaction, but we had work to do. I didn’t feel the need to speak on it further. I turned around pulling out my lightsaber only to see that the enemies Kira had been dealing with were unconscious. I raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it.

“We need the System Failsafe now,” I stated.

“If what I remember of the map is correct, it should be located somewhere inside the Metro Security Center,” Kira said, tilting her head in thought.

“Sounds about right… which is…”

“All the way near where we came into New Adasta.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “Of course...” then I glanced to what looked like a crashed speeder and went over to it.

“Think it still works?” Kira raised an eyebrow.

“Only one way to find out.” I fiddled with the settings and the speeder powered up. We both hopped on and I fiddled more with the handle controls and we raced our way through the Central District towards the coordinates.

* * *

“I think this is the right place?” I looked down to verify the coordinates on my wrist computer. Kira simply nodded as we went to investigate what looked like the Metro Security Center.

A click in my comm link opened and Agent Kovach began to speak, “Maybe you don’t want to hear this. I have to say it, though.”

I frowned a bit and gave a glance to Kira.

“Theron’s a good man. It matters that he placed his trust in me. But I work for the Republic. That’s the job. I hope you understand.”

The link clicked off and I pursed my lips.

“Jy?” Kira offered.

I shook my head. “Let’s deal with this failsafe.”

“We’re going to need to address this eventually.”

“I know.”

Kira frowned but nodded. We needed to stay on task. Everything was going upside down crazy and I wasn’t entirely sure what I thought or felt. But I knew I had a job to do. I knew I had to do something.

And keeping busy helped me avoid having to think about feelings.

After Kira’s careful slicing of the entrance to the Metro Security Center, I made my way in then halted slightly just inside the entrance.

“The hell?” was Kira’s only response.

“Kira,” I stated plainly, as I stared at the monstrous creature before us, “If we die, you’re fired.”


	5. Dissonance

“What was that thing?” I asked as I pulled my two shoto out of the back of the monstrous creature.

“We’ve been calling them monoliths,” Lana stated as she suddenly appeared on the holo comm from the failsafe console we had been directed to. “I promise I wasn’t eavesdropping. Just wanted to warn you.”

I raised an eyebrow and gave a glance to Kira behind me. The redhead was still staring dubiously at the ‘monolith.’

“We’ve seen several of those creatures appearing throughout New Adasta. They’re made from Sith alchemy. A sign of Vitiate’s growing power. Extremely strong, next to impossible to kill. The one you just defeated is the smallest we’ve come across.”

Kira mouthed behind me, “Smallest?”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “Its power has already returned.”

“I’m afraid so,” Lana nodded and switched off communication.

As if on cue, the monolith swung his large arm and I was caught in my stomach and flung back against the walls. I don’t entirely know how long I was out, but Kira was shouting at me by the time I shook my head and got back up and looked my surroundings. We needed to defeat the Monolith and stabbing it til it died was not the way to do it.

I looked across all the consoles, then noticed the broken electrical wire group on the floor, as well as the water underneath it. This was a bit of a gamble, but thankfully this was an enemy I didn’t really need to worry about utilizing my terrible pazaak face on. Remembering how things had worked in the Electrical Substation I looked around quickly for a switch.

My body ached as I got back up and I took a deep breath, using the Force meditation techniques to ignore pain for a time. My target was on the other side of the room and I had to get there without getting knocked out or winded again. Kira was smacked hard into another wall, but she blinked in and out of visibility before she took full impact.

I flipped the switch and watched as the monolith was finally knocked out due to the electrical current. After a few seconds, a little too late, did I notice the electrical current exit my own body. I wobbled a bit and looked at my hand. I couldn’t feel anything in it for what seemed like minutes, and there were now a few red lines adorning my flesh. I flexed it for a bit as Kira kicked the Monolith on her way over to me.

“Did you forget the safeties?” she asked quickly.

“Did we have time?”

Kira rubbed her face with her palm. “I should have kept the kolto pack...”

“I’ll be fine. I’ve survived force lightning.”

“Doc will have a fit.”

“Must be a day that ends in –y.” I moved back to the console to put in the failsafe override sequence. I tapped in the commands as per the directions we had been given and then leaned back against it with a heavy sigh.

“Plan’s over. Scrapped.” Agent Kovach walked into the Metro Center, his eyes completely exhausted as he moved to the communication console. “Some giant thing tore through a junction, caused an electrical surge. Dampeners are shot.”

Kira and I both glanced at each other and then back at the finally dead Monolith. I stabbed the nearest limb of the beast again to be sure before responding to the agent, “There has to be another way.”

He shook his head. “I thought about an electrical bombardment from space, but it would be incredibly imprecise. We’ll be as likely to kill a lot of people as anything.”

I shook my head in response to that. That was an unacceptable outcome. At least he had enough sense to see that without me having to point it out, like I have had to so many other Republic officials over the course of my career.

“Besides,” he continued, “The two fleets have engaged each other. Maybe if we convinced Saresh or Darth Marr to divert some forces...” His holo comm chirped, demanding his attention.

Theron appeared on the holo. “What’s the word, Kovach?”

“The word is ‘failure.’ I couldn’t make it work. I’m sorry, Agent Shan.”

I stared at Theron for a moment. Even through the holographic interface, I could see how tired he was. He wore what he felt was the weight of this world on his shoulders, even when he didn’t need to hold it alone. I flexed my right hand, still not feeling a lot more than vague tingles in it. I glanced over to Kovach and decided against bringing up something that, at this point, was not as important as stopping the Emperor.

“I’m sure you did your best,” Theron had continued on, “That’s all we can ask for. Look, maybe you should check in with Lana. If you can, get her to reach out to me.”

“I’ll do that,” Kovach responded. I thought I saw a slight wink in my direction from Theron before his image blinked out from the holo call. I didn’t have a chance to be sure about that before Kovach had packed up his kit and started walking out of the Metro Center. He turned his head slightly to me at the door and said, “You have my thanks.”

I frowned slightly and looked back at the Monolith lying dead in the middle of the room.

“You didn’t tell him,” Kira stated.

“I hesitated,” I admitted.

“He’d have probably fired him when we need all the bodies.”

“True. I’ll own that choice should it come up.”

“Guess we’ll have to talk to her at some point soon too.”

“Hm?”

“Chancellor Cockblock… I mean Saresh.”

I snorted. “Chancellor Cockblock?”

“She totally disrupted your reunion with Theron.”

I sighed and waved my hands around the room and emphatically pointed at the Monolith. “I’d say this whole situation disrupted any reunion.”

“Fair point. Your holo comm is blinking.”

I blinked and nodded and pulled it out. Lana appeared again on the holo. “I’m told Agent Kovach’s plan fell apart. The good news is I have another plan. A better plan. However, it’s an extremely dangerous plan—for you.”

“This is my shocked face,” I stated plainly at her, “I’m listening.”

“As I’m sure you’re aware, war has broke out across the globe. Our former Emperor, however, has focused his involvement to the area around New Adasta—near you.”

I tilted my head and encouraged her to continue.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It’s possible he isn’t as strong has he’s been letting on. It’s possible he’s worried about what you could do.”

I sighed. “It was always going to lead to this. Let him come for me.”

“I’m going to suggest something a little more proactive, actually. You must get all of his pawns—every last soldier, Jedi, and Sith to stop their slaughter and chase you into the heart of New Adasta. You must make Vitiate want to kill you. Now.”

“Vitiate want to kill me? Must be Taungsday.”

“I am aware of your past history with him.”

I quirked my eyebrow but said nothing else as she forwarded coordinates for the next location for me to head to. A place called the People’s Tower. Cutting off the communication with Lana, I frowned slightly.

“I really doubt you know what you think you do…”

Kira came back up beside me after her patrol of the room. “What was that?”

“Just doubting what Lana knows.”

Kira nodded. “You told Theron, but not her?”

I just nodded and started walking out of the Metro Security Center.

* * *

“This thing working?”

I blinked as Kira and I walked into a devastated cantina just outside of the People’s Tower in New Adasata. I fiddled with the comm on my wrist computer. “Doc, is that you?”

Doc’s voice was exasperated and tired, I could feel it from here. “Oh good, it does work. Giving you a status update because your spyboy has rushed off on a new errand with Teeseven.”

I sighed. “Go ahead.” As I awaited Doc’s report, I directed Kira to investigate the cantina with a quick motion of my head. I sensed there was something in there that could be quite useful for us, but I wasn’t sure what. I leaned against the edge of the door to the cantina and studied the area, taking note of some of the possessed soldiers and sith movements. I was trying to figure out the best plan of attack to get to the next region. I also noticed there were some very large turrets at the edge of the cliff the People’s Tower was on. I filed their existence away for future use.

“The small amount of survivors, between the soldiers, civilians, and slaves that he managed to keep from dying to... were they Jedi?”

“They were under the Emperor’s control.”

“I could tell...” I quirked an eyebrow at Doc’s comment there. Of course, he’d know what that was like. I audibly sighed remembering that he and my other companions had been on the Emperor’s Fortress with me. They knew… but Doc didn’t let my mind wander too far into it. “I mean. Anyway I’ve gotten the surviving patients that were able to be moved back up to the station. Tried to convince your boyfriend he needed to go with them for proper medical attention but he wouldn’t budge. The idiot.”

Biting back the traditional denial response, I simply just stated, “Doc…”

But he would not be deterred. “He’s a wreck and those scars will not heal properly if he doesn’t stop for 10 minutes to let a professional look over them. He just took one of my stronger doses and went off with Teeseven for… something the blonde Sith said.”

“You mean Lana.”

“That was her name. Sorry, I was never the greatest with remembering names.”

“Yes I remember. What did you really expect though, Doc?”

“I don’t know… maybe to think about his own health for a change. Maybe think how you’d feel if something happened to him.”

“Did you threaten him again?”

“Of course not.” Doc sounded almost insulted by my accusation. Though maybe not for the reason that I thought. “He didn’t stick around long enough for the lecture.”

I tried to keep my own voice calm and flexed my right hand a few times. “This whole planet is a mess Doc… You know I would…”

He cut me off. “Yeah yeah, needs of the many or some kriffin Jedi nobility. But you can’t save people if you’re dead.”

I rubbed my temple and just sighed, resigned. “Thanks for helping, Doc. That means a lot.”

“Of course. It’s what I do. I think he’ll be fine… just don’t think he will heal properly... not that that seems to be a thing he is unfamiliar with...”

“Doc...”

“Right right. Status update is done. More patients filtering in. Doc out.”

I continued scanning the surroundings and I felt Kira coming up from behind me.

“You conveniently left out how you got scorched when we defeated the Monolith,” she stated, smirking at me.

I flexed my right hand again, finally regaining the last bits of feeling that I had lost. “Please. Theron isn’t the only one who doesn’t want a lecture from Doc when there’s work to be done.”

“Agreed,” Kira nodded, “The bartender was dead. Unsurprising but still a pity. There was a key on him though.” She displayed the key to me.

“Wonder what this is for…” I furrowed my brow and studied it. Then I looked back around the landing pad outside of the cantina.

As we moved from our spot, we were suddenly besieged by a group of soldiers. I took a quick glance to the side and noticed that there was a woman cowering behind one of the benches, where these soldiers had moved from. Soon as they had come after us, she ran. I hoped she made it to the landing pad in time, but I had no way of keeping track of that. The soldiers weren’t much of a match between Kira and I, but by the time they were defeated at our feet, I could not see where the woman had gone. Hopefully she was safe and had not been added to Vitiate’s legion.

I really wish I didn’t have to think like that, but reality was unkind.

I took a look back at the key in my hand and frowned.

“I think it’s to one of these speeder bikes,” Kira spoke up.

I pursed my lips and tried it on the one near the ramp up towards the tower. That one didn’t work. Sighing I looked across the other speeders that were around. There were like five.

“Try this one!” Kira yelled back at me and I noticed she was pointing at the speeder right next to the cantina entrance.

Of course... That would make sense. I came back over and sure enough, the key fit.

“It needs some fuel first,” Kira stated, “No other way. Not sure where we’d find some fuel though.”

I looked up and pondered. Then I pointed out the air defense turrets I’d spotted earlier. “They should have some fuel. We can shut those down and get the fuel from there.”

“You mean steal the fuel.”

“It’s not stealing!”

Kira simply raised her eyebrow.

“It’s borrowing...”

“Borrowing?”

“... Borrowing without the intent to return. What does it matter? We need to shut down the turrets anyway.”

“Of course Master Jyana.”

We moved our way up the ramp towards the People’s Tower. Four air defense turrets lined the edge of the platform with a very long drop down. We made fairly quick work of getting the fuel from three of them, as well as dealing with more of Vitiates marionette army. I stared up at the last turret and tried to figure out the best way of approach.

“We should have enough,” Kira stated after helping a small shaking child out from under a bench. “What are you thinking?”

“We need to get that last one shut down. Think that speeder will get us there?”

“Most definitely, but let's get this girl to the transports here.”

I looked back and looked down at the child. Her eyes were larger than her face, blue as the Alderaanian sky, her blonde hair short and dirty. She stared up at me, her face stained with tears. She was quaking with fear. Kira had most of it handled as she eased the child to allow her to pick her up. I placed a light hand on top of the child’s head. “Did you lose your parents?” I asked softly.

She nodded slowly.

“What is your name?”

Her voice was very soft, barely audible if you didn’t know what you were listening to. A slight accent painted her a native of the planet. “Kallie.”

“We’re going to get you to safety, Kallie. Find help.”

She continued to stare at me, but I could feel her fear shifting to hope.

“She’s got a broken leg,” Kira mentioned as she shifted the child on her hip.

I nodded. “We need to get her to Doc.”

She nodded to me and we took back off towards the transport. I reached out my senses across the platform. I could not sense any other children or people that were of their own mind left. First things first, get this child somewhere safe.

* * *

After making the appropriate transfers and verifying that Kallie was being taken care of by Doc and whoever else he’d roped into helping him now on the Orbital Station, Kira and I had gotten the speeder bike fueled up and ready to go. I was planning to try to zoom up the ramp and get to that last air defense turret to shut it down.

I hopped onto the speeder and started preparing to drive. Kira stared at me dubiously. “What?” I asked.

“This isn’t your run of the mill standard issue republic sanctioned speeder, Jy.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“This is more like one of the speeders I had to hotwire when I was on Nar Shaddaa.”

“I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

“You just had to say that.”

I just stared at Kira for a few minutes as she reluctantly popped onto the speeder behind me. I started the speeder up and started my way back up towards the tower.

The speeder, in whoever’s infinite wisdom, suddenly lurched forward in a spurt of speed, catching me completely off guard. Holding on tightly, I tried to manage the speeder as it suddenly slowed back down again. It did this a second time and I attempted to time it just so as we went towards the wall. I couldn’t really breath with how tightly Kira was holding my stomach and the next burst of speed landed us into a wall, both of us in a pile on the ground.

“Let me get this... you stay here...” Kira muttered, brushing herself off.

I sighed, still mostly upside down from how we were flung. “Fine.”

I righted myself as Kira took the speeder and expertly angled it and got it up the ramp, jumping over the gaps with ease. I grumbled a bit but took that moment to regain my breath. I flexed my right hand, grateful that at least something had started to heal by the time I heard the explosion of the last air defense turret being taken down and Kira had made it back down.

She smirked at me and patted the seat of the speeder behind her. I rolled my eyes and hopped back on and we went inside the People’s Tower.


	6. Showdown

“Typical Imperials,” Kira huffed, “So rude to guests.”

I frowned as tried a few things with the Force. “I’m not sure I can bust it myself.”

My friend took a step up and closed her eyes. Then she shook her head. “I doubt even the two of us could do it alone, even if one of us was on the other side. Unless Lana is miraculously right there, we’re on our own. We need something else.”

I frowned. Not really willing to give up quite yet, I tested the door again with my senses.

“Jyana, I think we need something with a bit more explosive power.”

I sighed heavily. “Fine. What do you have in mind?”

Kira scanned the entrance hall. There was a large holographic map of Ziost on display on the middle console. She took a scan beyond it. “There’s something over there, but I think we’ll have to fight our way there.”

“Sounds about normal,” I sighed.

We worked our way over there quickly, myself leaping into battle with a Sith Lord. I only felt slightly bad about engaging him in battle, cause I was fairly sure he’d want to thwart whatever we were planning on his own volition. I couldn’t tell how long he’d been under Vitiate’s puppetry, but it didn’t matter now. A poor imperial medic was unfortunately in the crossfire, which was something that I did feel terrible about. But our situation did not give us a lot of time to reflect or regret. We had to keep moving.

When the enemies had fallen, as they refused to stop until they were ended, I noticed the thing Kira thought she had seen. I picked up the rocket launcher and looked at it with great suspicion.

“That looks promising,” Kira said.

“This might be overkill,” I stated looking at it and checking to make certain it was loaded.

“Pft,” Kira waved that off, “No such thing as overkill.”

“Let’s move.” I put the rocket launcher over my shoulder, loosely letting the strap on it secure it there. I looked back towards the door and frowned. “Did you invite more friends to the party?” I asked motioning towards the four imperial commandos that were now between us and the door. 

“I need to hire a new party planner.”

I was getting so tired of fighting, but I tossed my lightsabers to draw the commandos’ attention. I wasn’t sure I was quite comfortable opening with my typical leap into the fray. Adding the rocket launcher to my back would wreck the physics of the leap or at least set it off that I wasn’t sure I had the right read on it. I already had a habit of overexerting and I really could not afford to do it at this stage. I was already exhausted. I knew the final battle was soon, but I could not completely estimate how much longer I had to go. I couldn’t go overboard now, not at this stage. 

Kira pushed the last of the four back as he fell. She frowned looking down at them. A glance up at me showed me she was feeling what I was. Overwhelming sorrow. Both of us knew what it was like to be out of our own control. Both of us had broken free, but it did not pass without some level of scars. Such was our life.

We got to the door and I unholstered the rocket launcher. This wasn’t my first rodeo. I checked all the mechanisms, made certain the ammo was set just right. 

“Maybe we should knock first?” Kira asked.

“This is me knocking,” I said and fired.

The explosion shock the building and threw both of us back. Startled at the reaction I dropped the rocket launcher and used the Force to cushion our fall.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

I stared at Kira as I picked myself up off the floor.

“I gotta get me one of those!” she said as she was pointing at the rocket launcher.

“Later. We don’t have any way to reload it and we’ve got to keep moving.”

“No fun.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes and jumped through the door.

It felt like Vitiate had an endless supply of bodies to pile up between us and our destination. It also took a great deal of concentration to focus on jumping up along the elevator shaft to the next level of the building. The screams of the dying, the terror, the fear, all the feelings of deep buried rage kept trying to overwhelm my senses. 

“Watch out!” Kira shouted as turrets opened fire on us after we gained our footing on the floor. 

A flick of the lightsabers sadly was not all it took, but we did make fairly quick work of them.

My wrist computer blinked at me, telling me that I had an incoming call. I flicked it on as we were besieged by another group of soldiers.

Lana’s voice came through the call saying, “Before we go ahead with this... you and I should talk—in person. I’ll see you shortly.”

I frowned then looked down at the coordinates now showing on the small data viewer after the comm cut off. 

“This way.”

* * *

I looked at the forcefield over the door to the room that Lana had indicated and let out a heavy sigh. Kira motioned there were electrical panels on the outside of each door. Nodding we both threw a wave of the Force at the panels, causing them to explode. This knocked the forcefield down.

There were many civilian employees within the room. I tried to raise my hands in a defensive pose. “I don’t want to hurt any of you...” I said before they started to lunge at Kira and I, shooting and even some just trying to go at us hand to hand. I sighed, looking at each of their eyes as they fell, fighting to their last with no control of their own bodies. The silver eyes, showing their actions belonged to him.

In the corner of my eye, a green and black cloak flicked by, moving towards the console in the back of the room. Kira and I sheathed our sabers and moved to join Lana. 

“You’ve made it,” the Sith Lord stated without looking up as she pushed on the controls, “Good. Time is short—so is reliable assistance.” She fiddled with the holo communication controls on the console and continued talking without really looking back at me. “I have Agent Kovach assembling a suppression team out of whatever droids he can find, so I approached another agent to assist us.”

Theron Shan appeared on the holo and he looked around between us and did what could only be described as striking a pose. He rested his hand on his hip with ease and comfort that belied the exhaustion that was evident in his eyes, even from within a holo communication. I raised my eyebrows and gave a sigh. I partially wondered if he was trying to play it cool with Lana. Then again, this is Theron. There were so many layers behind the surface. I am not entirely sure how many I’d seen behind, but there was a selfish part of me that would like to think that I was one of the few that had.

Of course, now was not the time to think about those kinds of things. Lana addressed him quickly, “Are you in position?”

“Yeah, but this setup isn’t anything like what you described.”

“So what you’re saying is you can’t figure it out.”

“Don’t get all…” he sighed and put his hands in front of him, “I’ll figure it out.”

“We’re about to begin, so that would be nice.”

“He has Teeseven with him, he’ll be fine,” I quickly cut in.

Theron gave me a grateful nod and cut out the communication.

As soon as his image flickered off, I asked, “What exactly are we about to begin, Lana?”

“You’re going to make Vitiate angry. So angry that he’ll place all his attention on killing you.” She punched in some controls on the console and then turned to look at me. If I didn’t know better, she had a very Jedi way of masking her emotions, but that could be partially from how she had to keep her mind focused on defense, lest the incorporeal former Emperor decide to take her body for a ride. She continued on, “When the time comes, you’ll lead him to an electrostatic weapon stored there, in the heart of New Adasta. It’s meant to be a last resort against major civil uprisings, but Theron’s modifying it to be non-lethal. With the reduced charge, its radius of impact will diminish.”

I raised an eyebrow and shared a glance with Kira before looking back to Lana. “You have a weapon designed with the sole purpose of killing your own people?”

Lana waved it off as if it was a non-issue. “It’s not as if we install one in every metropolis. We nearly lost New Adasta to unrest once before.”

“Well in that case...”

I could see her eye slightly twitch, but she ignored my snide remark. “Shall we get started?” she asked and pointed towards the holo comm device.

Suppose it was time for my performance art masterpiece of a monologue. I really hate monologuing. But certain people seemed to love it. Maybe it will do the trick. 

I took a deep breath and nodded to Lana and she opened the comm. “Vitate! I am the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order. I’ve struck you down once already. Today, I’m finishing the job. Today, you will face justice.”

Lana cut off the communication and glanced over at me, her expression unreadable except for very obvious exhaustion. 

“I think that did it?” I questioned, pondering over if I should have monologued longer, or been harsher, and I almost got caught in my train of thought until Lana cut me off.

“I have to go now. There’s much to be done.” She sighed heavily, “Too much. I shouldn’t have come here, truth be told.”

I reached out and took hold of her shoulder. A year or so ago, she might have flinched at the contact, but not today. “Be strong, Lana. Stay focused. You’ll be fine.”

She offered me a tired smile. “Thank you. We’ll see if you’re right.”

* * *

I looked behind me after I pressed the button to call the elevator to the top floor. Master Onok and Master Landai were both unconscious, but free. I could still hear their voices demanding for me to kill them, even though they weren’t really their own voices. I electrocuted them. They would make it. Doc and Lord Scourge were on their way to retrieve them and get them off world as soon as they could. I needed to focus though. 

As I stepped in the elevator and punched the controls to take us up, I wondered if Lana’s plan would work. Kira gave me a poke. I gave her a tired smile. She was right. There was a time and place to dwell on what has happened since I stepped foot on this planet, and now was not one of them.

We walked onto the platform to find Theron and T7 working on opposite sides of the entryway.

“That’s it, Teeseven,” he called out to the droid then looked up from his work to see us. He gave a quick nod and what I thought was a slight smirk to me and continued, “Got it set up for as big a non-lethal burst as we can manage.” He looked over to T7 as the droid unplugged himself from the wall socket. “Thanks buddy,” he said to the droid then turned back to Kira and I. “Should be enough to zap anyone in range into a nice, long, involuntary nap.”

I looked up at the large device that was on the ceiling over the open air platform. Frowning I muttered lowly, “Should be?”

Theron shrugged. “Hard to come up with a one-size fits all solution. Lot of guesswork involved. Wish there was a way Teeseven and I could have done a test run before...”

As his vocalized thought trailed off, I looked back towards the entry point I had just come through. I didn’t sense anything quite yet, but I could feel it wouldn’t be too long. 

“They’ve got to be closing in,” Kira stated aloud, echoing my own thoughts.

“Then come on,” he said, waving me over to where he had a device waiting for us, “We need to be shielded.” I followed him, still studying my surroundings. He straightened up after ensuring the shield was properly set and looked to me. “Okay. We should wait until they’re good and close.” 

I closed my eyes briefly, allowing my senses to reach out to get a good feel for how much time we had. It wasn’t much. I moved slightly closer to Theron and said softly, “I wasn’t sure when I’d run into you again. Not the greatest circumstances, but still.” I very nearly reached to him but halted myself with a small glance behind me. It wasn’t Kira though that I sensed when I could feel we weren’t alone.

He offered a weak but knowing smile. “Maybe next time the lives of an entire world won’t be in danger – but, yeah, feeling’s mutual.”

I felt my heart flip flop a bit at his smile and met his with my own. Soon though, I could feel them. His amber eyes shifted from mine to behind me. Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I took a deep breath, then reopened them to follow his gaze. Kira had already drawn her dual-saber, its green light reflecting against the metallic floor.

Theron pulled out his data pad and started tapping. “Okay, here comes the puppet brigade. Fingers crossed…”

It was a fairly sizable group, Imperials, Republic troops, and even some Jedi. I silently cursed the Chancellor and added it to the growing list of matters I will add to a report, should I bother to file one. At this particular moment, the choice words I had planning were significantly less Jedi than they had been the beginning of this entire fiasco. The horde moved closer and Theron triggered the device.

That Theron even had to modify it to be non-lethal was not lost on me. As I saw the soldiers all be stunned and fall to the ground, I could not help but wonder what the result would have been had that modification not been made. The Empire, putting a weapon in one of its capital cities with the capability to kill a vast amount of their own citizens? If they had one of these in New Adasta, they could have it on Kass City, or in a number of other cities. But why? Because of riots? Gee, I wonder why anyone would riot against a ruling body that had no regard for their lives.

My eyes glanced over to a Republic soldier that had collapsed. Were we even better? The Republic should be better than this. Theron followed my eyes and let the shield dome collapse. He approached the soldier and knelt. “This one was closet, took the biggest hit.” He reached for his neck, checking his pulse as I walked up beside him. I looked out towards the door and across the landscape of unconscious bodies. “Still alive,” Theron confirmed, relief in his voice, “We did it! Let’s just hope we got all of them.”

“Let’s hope,” I murmured, still scanning the surroundings. Something still felt off. This moment was far from over, I could feel it.

“We should call Lana now, see if she has a plan for what’s next.”

The bodies began to float in the air. “I have a better idea,” a booming male imperial voice spoke through the woman sauntering onto the platform. With a small flick of a hand motion, the bodies crashed back away from her, clearing a path. Her eyes yellow and wild, she smirked as she drew her lightsaber.

“Master Surro.” Theron’s entire stance sunk and he moved to stand between me and the unconscious puppet army and the approaching Jedi Master. “No...” I lightly reached an arm to his shoulder, trying to pull him back and shift him behind me, but he stood his ground.

“Watching you believe you had a chance; it’s amused me.” Master Surro raised her hand sluggishly as if it were pulled by string, the Force lifting a dazed Imperial lieutenant into a sitting position. “Now this whole charade is pathetic.”

I shifted my own position, trying to assess the situation and moved in front of Theron. Not soon enough, as Master Surro summarily executed the dazed man she’d just set up. The range of emotions in the man beside me went from shock, to horror, to anger. It took a great deal of my own willpower and Force meditation to not absorb Theron’s pain and have it fuel me and complement the dread that I felt; the very dread I’ve been feeling rising since the moment I’d received his distress holo.

Master Surro’s lips turned in a cruel sneer. “Now, how do you wish to die? In combat or on your knees?”

Lana raced from within the building, lightsaber drawn and poised to attack.

“Go away, little Sith.” Master Surro easily shoved the approaching Sith Lord with a shove. Theron moved in front of me again and drew his weapon but was immediately lifted in the air. He gave me a wincing glance before he was unceremoniously thrown against the wall and crashed the ground. I looked between Lana and Theron and took the last reserves of my energy to take a deep breath. 

Glancing back to Master Surro, I furrowed my brow and drew both my shoto. The Emperor controlled puppet smirked. “This has nothing to do with your friends. This is you and I.”

Igniting my sabers, I leaped into the air.

The original clash was brief, a flurry of blades. Kira flanked our opponent, trying to keep her busy. There was no way that she was going to let me fight alone, even if I sensed that was what Master Surro desired. We just had to stay vigiliant.

If I could keep my eyes from glancing over at Theron long enough to stay focused.

Of course Surro, no… not Surro, Vitiate… he figured out my distraction and pressed the attack on me, completely ignoring Kira who was trying to sneak attack from behind. I tried to block a downward strike with both my shoto but I lost track of my direction and Surro took the opportunity to kick me and Force push me at that moment. The push knocked me near complete off the edge and drop my shoto completely. I reached out quickly and barely grabbed hold of the edge.

I took this time to reflect on my life choices. Trying my hardest to keep as many people alive as possible, even the possessed jedi that Vitiate used to try to taunt me. _Kill them, _he had said, _I won’t mind—and neither will your dear ally._

I sighed. I tried so hard to compartmentalize my feelings. It wasn’t working. I took a deep breath. Theron’s been through worse, he’ll be fine. They’ll all be fine.

I heard a squeak as I sensed Kira get knocked out, not far from where Lana was. Closing my eyes, I found my sabers and lept into the air.

I landed on the other side of Master Surro, flipping overhead her before she’d noticed I’d gotten there it seemed. She gave me a sneer. “Why won’t you die, little girl?”

“No matter how powerful you are, I’ll never fall to you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Confident—to the end.”

My lightsabers returned to my hands, I ignited them and pressed the attack. I did not relent, I would not back down, and he had to know that.

It took some time until Master Surro finally collapsed at my feet. I took a deep breath and studied her, not wanting to take any chances. When she looked back up, her eyes were their natural color.


	7. Cataclysm

I wasn’t entirely paying much attention to whether T7 had tried to jolt Theron awake from where he lay, or Kira sluggishly picking herself up and offering Lana a hand. I did notice in the corner of my eye, the shake of her head as Lana declined Kira’s hand, making my former padawan frown slightly. Maybe a matter of pride to the Sith Lord for all I knew. I wouldn’t profess to understand the inner workings of someone who has known only but Sith culture but for the year or so working with Theron and Jakarro on Rishi.

My focus was on the Jedi Master who had collapsed at my feet. She was shaking, curling inward upon herself. I knelt down in front of her, watching her closely. I kept my hands in front of me, showing that they were nowhere near my lightsabers. Whether she noticed, I wasn’t sure, but there was nothing calm about her mind.

“I saw it,” she whispered, her eyes not meeting mine, but it was clear that they were her own eyes and not the different coloration that denoted Vitiate still residing in her mind.

I reached out to her forehead, lightly touching my fingers to the sweat beads along her hairline, with a small hush of my voice. “Calm. It’s alright,” I said softly, “You aren’t alone.”

She flinched lightly, but relaxed a slight bit, still rocking herself. “I saw it,” she repeated, a little louder, her eyes flickering behind me and up, “I saw everything. Every life. Every life he too—I took.” She looked back down, giving me a glance in my eyes before focusing on the ground. “It’s all I can see anymore.”

A gentle hand rested on the top of my head, lingering as if desiring comfort yet not quite willing to display it so visibly in our current situation. I didn’t need to look behind me to know who it was. I could sense a wave of exhaustion, but pride and shy affection from Theron, as his gloved fingers lightly traced a strand of my hair before he removed his hand.

I raised an eyebrow but did not look behind me, instead I focused what energy I had left into trying to calm Master Surro with the Force.

The broken Jedi in front of me remained downcast. “I’m a monster,” she rasped out.

I closed my eyes, trying to use the Force to move my calm and assurance into her. 

“That’s not true,” Theron stated softly behind me, “You’ll be okay. I’ll take you to Tython. The Jedi will help you restore your mind, make you whole again.”

Before I could slowly nod, my agreement, Lana spoke up. “And then she’ll be no good to us…”

I removed my hand quickly from Master Surro’s forehead and stood up, brushing off my pants. My eyes remained closed, but I took a few deep breaths. I did not want my attempt to share calm with Surro to be disrupted by the flash of hot anger I felt as Lana stated those words.

Lana was still speaking, though my focus was not entirely on her words. “We need to understand the connection Vitiate established with this Jedi so we can stop it or exploit it.” 

Kira had swiftly taken up a spot between Surro and Lana, her expression unreadable. 

Theron frowned. “Let me guess,” he stated through clinched teeth, “The process is ‘invasive.’ Hasn’t she been through enough?”

“We’ve bought ourselves some time—that’s all. We can’t risk the fate of the galaxy just to assuage your guilt.”

I flinched at Lana’s words but before I could respond, Theron had raised his voice. “You want to take her brain apart and you don’t even know if you’ll find anything?”

“We have to try!” Lana’s voice raised in response.

“He’s never leaving!” Surro cried out, rocking again, despite Kira’s light hand on her shoulder, “I’m going to hear him forever!”

A flame, a white-hot flame burned behind my eyes, a memory, movement not my own. Lightsaber red, killing droids, faceless victims. Blood, fear, a slow laugh, a reminder of things that had once been in the past. Walking through corridors, grey and bleak, a mask to shield my face, to hide my shame, my once yellow eyes. Rage, deep and dark, against all presence of the light.

Then a hum, a low light melody, bright and crisp broke through. I opened my eyes as I recognized Kira’s voice, the sound of her humming a soothing lullaby of sorts. I am not sure how much time had passed, but Theron and Lana were still arguing. 

I took a deep breath. “Enough.”

Theron and Lana blinked over looking at me as I had reached out my hand to Surro. The jedi took my hand and allowed Kira and I to help her up.

“Master Surro goes with Theron,” I said simply.

“You’re joking,” Lana rasped out, “Tell me you’re joking.”

“You heard her.” Theron’s voice towards the Sith was cold. 

“You may have killed us all,” Lana snarled, “I hope you’re happy.” With the last of her words she twirled around and left the platform.

For a short moment, I wondered if I had done the right thing. I knew Surro must go to Tython and Theron was going to get her there. This was the right thing. But the thing I questioned, was more whether I should have said why. Did Lana even know what I had gone through at the Emperor’s Fortress years ago? Did she need to? Should I have told her.

It was a little late for that now at any rate.

“Well,” Theron said walking up next to me, scratching the back of his neck, “Let’s hope she doesn’t turn the Imperial Army on us. Just to be safe, I’ll get Master Surro off world as soon as I can.”

I nodded. “Kira, go with him. Make certain she gets the care that she needs.”

Kira nodded, letting Surro drape her arm around her shoulders and she started walking back in towards the building.

“They’ll know what to do on Tython,” I said, looking over at Theron.

He nodded. “I know.”

“Trust me,” I said softly, looking back at the ground.

He took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. I looked back up at him, but he said nothing further on that. He didn’t need to. “We got a break from the Emperor, now,” he said, looking back over the landscape we could see from the platform, “But that may only last until all the trained killing machines we zapped get on their feet again.” He gave my hand another squeeze and then let go. “Meantime, maybe we can get Saresh to agree to a strategic retreat.”

I nodded. “See what you can do.” I paused, frowning slightly as I noticed he had started moving out with T7 and Kira. “And Theron…?”

He looked back to me and raised an eyebrow. “Yes Jyana?”

I faltered slightly. His eyes were exhausted but I nearly got lost in them again. I lost most track of what I was even thinking for a few moments. We didn’t have time; I could feel it. I felt, some kind of doom, a small rise of panic racing through my body that I could not explain.

“Jy?”

I startled. I offered him a weak smile and said simply, “Be safe.”

He nodded. “You too.”

* * *

_When I am finished here—when every life on this world has been exhausted—I want you to be alive. To know that I have succeeded._

_“Jyana, retreat from the planet. Now.”_

_I sensed it. A growing ache, some wrongness that I couldn’t quite place. Kira was already off world with Theron and Surro and there was no one else in the People’s Tower left. I took a deep breath and called down the nearest transport._

_I watched through the windows as I took the transport with a batch of refugees. I could feel it. _

_I had failed._

* * *

_When I am finished here—when every life on this world has been exhausted—I want you to be alive. To know that I have succeeded._

I felt a wave of darkness building in the back of my head, throbbing as my temples ached. At first, I thought it was simply exhaustion. Since coming to Ziost I had not once taken a true moment to myself. Not even the five minutes I waited for Saresh’s call as I perched on the statues in the People’s tower. The darkness in the back of my head throbbed, pushing at the far recesses of my mind, taking hold of memories, the white-hot anger I had felt towards Lana’s presumption that she could get any kind of information out of torturing an already tortured soul. I felt the rage build within me again and it took a great deal of strength of my own will to push it back. Not to repress it, but to accept that I indeed felt angry at Lana for her attitude, and then just move on. As soon as the anger that had washed over me had faded, a new sensation hit me.

I placed my hand against the bulkhead as the darkness building in my mind turned into unadulterated terror and threatened to knock me over. Screams, squeals, shrieks echoed in the corners of my consciousness. Thousands, millions, billions of voices, crying out, and slowly silencing. Not a sudden drop from a cacophony to a void of silence, but a slow erasure of the dissonance entirely. I looked up in horror as the blue world through the window of the _Defender_ slowly became dust brown and grey, from what looked like a wave engulfing the entire globe.

Then it dawned on me. That wasn’t an external weapon. That was… _him_. What was once full of life… was gone… in an instant.

A deep imperial voice growled from behind me. “Now you understand.”

I looked back at Lord Scourge who was still staring at Ziost. For a man who had been unable to utilize any of his basic senses, a man without emotions for over 300 years, I could sense the fragments of terror behind his expressionless face and voice. “Scourge?”

“Another Sith home world, destroyed to fuel his immortality.” Then there was silence as the red skinned sith, Kira, and I stared at what was left of Ziost through the window of the _Defender_.

“Excuse me,” Doc peaked in the bridge of the _Defender_, “There’s a personal holo call coming through.”

In unison, Kira and Scourge spoke. “Not now, Doc.”

I could sense the blink from behind me as I continued staring at Ziost. Doc looked past me and startled. “Is that…?”

“Ziost,” Scourge answered curtly.

“What…?”

“Nothing remains alive. The Emperor consumed the world.”

“How is that even… never mind,” Doc sighed. “Jyana, it’s Theron.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. More than anything I would want to talk to him. Maybe rush into his arms and maybe that will erase the growing sense of loss I felt every moment. But, I couldn’t. Not now.

“Now is a really bad time,” Kira said softly.

“Theron’s surrounded by a bunch of Jedi, he said something bad happened. I assume,” Doc made a vague wave at the dead planet in the view screen, “That’s what happened?”

_Oh. That’s why_… I nodded to Doc and simply said, “Tell him I’m alive, and I’ll see him at Carrick Station.”

Doc hesitated for a moment before nodding his acknowledgement and retreating.

I could vaguely hear the conversation, but I couldn’t make out the words. For once in both of their lives, they didn’t snipe or snark at each other. Just acknowledged the message, expressed concern for each other’s wellbeing, and I assume mine, and ended the call. If I was in a better mood, I probably would have marked this down as a historical achievement.

“You’re thinking about going down there,” Scourge stated after what felt like an hour.

I simply nodded.

“Since I doubt I can talk you out of it, you will not go down there alone.”

I looked over towards the ancient red sith. “Thank you,” I said, genuinely.

We exchanged no further words as we stood there watching the world for another hour.

* * *

I pinched the bridge of my nose after pulling the microbinoculars down. It’d been a temple to the Emperor but watching the data of what used to be turned to dust in real time, repeatedly, one after the other, was taxing. Scourge, walking up beside me as he tinkered with his own scanning devices, mentioned a few times under his breath as we walked through the dust and ash that it felt different than what he had expected. 

I couldn’t even imagine what he had meant by that. The colors were muted, like they had been sucked out along with the life that this planet once had. Scourge didn’t elaborate but seemed to be surprised at his ability to sense the Force. It wasn’t as strong as it would have been normally. I can’t imagine what he was even remotely thinking of when I heard vague references to a world where even the Force had been consumed.

Kira had remained on the ship. She’d not elaborated on her, “Nope,” reaction, nor did I require her to. Doc on the other hand, had agreed to join us. Probably something in the name of science or medicine. I could sense his regret the moment we had touched onto the world.

It mirrored my own, despite being for different reasons. He perhaps regretted agreeing to come down to the world with Scourge and me. I regretted that this world was in the state it is. I felt the weight of this resting on me. If Theron had felt guilty for what he’d put the Sixth Line through, and then for what Saresh had chosen to do with the Republic troops, I felt guilty for this entire world.

I had failed.

“You’ve got a holo call coming in,” Kira called down through my earpiece, shaking me out of my thoughts.

I sighed heavily. Though on the one hand, a distraction from my own self-pity party would be grand, on the other hand, I didn’t really want to talk to anyone. “Can it wait?” 

“It’s the Chancellor and the Grand Master.”

“Fantastic, let me get my portable holo set up for that.” I pulled out my device and started fiddling with it to receive the signal. I looked over to see Doc poking at something on the ground and Scourge had his own microbinoculars up and he was scanning off in the distance.

I got the holo working and as I popped in, I’d noticed it was more of a conference call and they were just looping me in on the discussion. I found myself just crossing my arms and listening for the most part, though occasionally glancing to the doctor who slightly flailed and raced to another section of ash.

After some time, the Chancellor of the Republic turned to me on the holo. I had zoned out at some point, my headache pounding. What she was saying was nothing different than what she had said when I tried to talk with her from the People’s Tower in New Adasta. Before Vitiate had consumed all life on this world. I started to zone back in as she repeated, “I have questions for you. What were these possessions?”

“Now? Now you listen to me?”

Both Saresh and Master Satele startled at my outburst. I’m sure they weren’t quite prepared for a revered Jedi Master and the famous Hero of Tython to actually have a semblance of a temper, but the ashes surrounding me, that I’d been walking through most of today, had a way of making even the calmest of minds snap.

Before either of them could speak I continued, “If you had even remotely listened to the intelligence on the ground instead of being blinded by hatred of the Empire, maybe we would have stood a chance to stop Vitiate from eating an entire world.” I took a deep breath and then made a very exaggerated point to show my backdrop behind me. The muted colors, the grey ash and dust of a torn-up wasteland. “But no. This is on you.”

“Now listen here…” Saresh began.

“No,” and I clicked off the communication link with the Chancellor. I looked quickly to Satele, who was just staring at me with emotionless concern. Before she spoke, I cut off any train of thought she was about to attempt. “I will not take orders from her. If that means I am no longer Battlemaster, so be it.”

“I do not think that is necessary. But remember…”

I took a deep cleansing breath, well as cleansing as could be given my surroundings. “I remember,” I said, my voice taking on the same calm serenity that Master Satele had. Then I ended the communication.

“There’s nothing further we can do here,” Scourge stated after a short amount of time of me staring and lightly fuming at the holo console. 

I sighed. I knew he was right. I looked over to where Doc has bent over what looked like remains and closed my eyes. The world felt so hollow, there was no wind, all the color washed out, and the Force felt more like a creeping Void. I could feel the discomfort from the towering Sith behind me, I could sense Doc’s complete distress. I took a deep breath and walked over to him and lightly placed a hand on his shoulder.

He placed a hand over mine and nodded, standing up. “I know, but we had to try, right?”

I nodded. “I cannot even imagine what this is like for you.”

“I have no words,” he sighed looking back down to the remains.

Any other time, we would make a joke at our predicament. But today was not that day. “Let’s get going. I believe I have a debriefing on Carrick Station.”

Doc quirked a smirk. “Of course. You want to see Shan.”

I felt Scourge’s frown though I wasn’t entirely sure what this time it was about and just started walking my way back to the shuttle. I took another look back out across the world and rubbed the edge of my eyes.


	8. Aftermath

Theron Shan was talking to his mother on the holo as I entered the room, I stayed slightly out of view and allowed him to finish.

“Understood. Thank you.” He shut off the holo and gripped the edge of the console, looking down. “Thank you…” he murmured.

“What was that about?” I asked cautiously, hoping to not have an accusation in my voice.

He looked defeated as he responded. “Master Surro. She went catatonic for a while—now she’s responsive. Not in the greatest shape, but they say it’s promising.”

Without really thinking, I found myself responding, “She knew the risks going in, Theron. You have to remember that.”

“It’s one thing to know it’s true in your head…”

I nodded in understanding and glanced down as the memories of everything I’d done while under the Emperor’s influence years ago flooded to the surface, the feeling of the dark side and reveling in it and its power. Every so often, these feelings would wash over me like it was yesterday, just yesterday when I stopped and snapped to reality before I saw Kira strapped to that torture device. The nightmares still haunted, lurking behind my conscious thoughts. Up until the death of Ziost ran over me like a rampaging bantha, the memory had faded, replaced by more pleasant memories. But the nightmares remained… infrequent, but never truly gone. 

For a brief moment I remembered telling him of my own experiences with the Emperor. How gentle his hands were as he cradled my face as I spoke to him about it. How soft his voice was in that moment. How the breeze blew around us over the Yavin cliff, leading to the jungle below. Leading to where I had needed to go. How I wished to stay in his arms at that moment. How I wished to be in his arms now, but I could sense his own exhaustion. He was right… it is one thing to know it’s true in your head. I didn’t want to point out the fact that she is going to have to live with those nightmares for the rest of her life, no matter what healing they could give her on Tython: he didn’t need more guilt on top of what he already had. 

Another burden I will bear.

He had turned to face me and continued. “Saresh finally saw reason before things got too bad, got a bunch of our troops out of there—still, we lost so many, nevermind the rest of Ziost.”

I tried not to wince as he mentioned Ziost. Tried to push down the feeling of complete failure that tried to crush me. This conversation wasn’t about me. He had his own pain to deal with. He didn’t need mine too.

He sighed as he continued, “Add to all that, that I found out that Agent Kovach was actually working for Saresh this whole time.”

I looked down and took a deep breath. “I know. I overheard him talking to Saresh back on Ziost.”

Theron growled, “You did?” I involuntarily winced. “And you…” He stopped, looked at my face and then sighed looking down. “Makes sense I guess. It… It wasn’t the best time to sort all that out.”

“I didn’t intentionally…”

“I know. Sorry… this has been rough for all of us, I guess.”

“What’s Kovach’s status now?”

Theron shrugged. “Far as I know, he’s still pretending to work under Lana and reporting to Saresh. Anyway, it’s all out of my hands now. Suppose I shouldn’t even be here, technically.” I tilted my head as he explained. “Saresh and Master Satele weren’t all that excited to find out I had a team of black ops Jedi on call without their knowledge. I’m on administrative leave—indefinitely.”

I frowned. I understood the reasoning, but Theron wasn’t really the sort to be very comfortable sitting on his hands and doing nothing. “Forget about the SIS. I could use someone like you at my side.” As soon as the words left my mouth I almost cursed myself. Well that isn’t awkward at all.

He chuckled, looking slightly grateful, but instead responded, “I’m sure.” He paused for a bit and I wasn’t sure if he noticed my slight fidget. “Growing up, I had an idea of who and what I would be. In a lot of ways, that didn’t happen, but in the ways that matter…” he looked up at me, offering a small smile. “What I’m saying is, I belong with the SIS. I’m not throwing in the towel.”

I nodded, then thought for a moment. “Why don’t we pay a visit to the station cantina—for old times’ sake?”

Theron picked himself off the console he’d been leaning on and walked towards me. “I’ll have to take a rain check, but…” He reached out, cupping my face with warm, calloused hands, and kissed me softly. I hadn’t realized he wasn’t wearing his gloves, so the touch of his skin on mine startled me before I eased into the sensation of his tongue lightly brushing against mine as our mouths were merged. I sensed his exhaustion and untreated injuries and understood. As he pulled back, he smiled at me, and lowered his voice and rested his head on my forehead, “I might be persuaded another time.”

I fought against the small ache I felt, the one that didn’t want him to let go. How at that one moment I longed to just stay right here, or perhaps just with him, in his arms. In some sort of odd sort of safety that I didn’t truly expect to feel. I didn’t really want nor need much more than just this. But the time was not right, not for either of us.

We parted; his fingers slowly lingering as they brushed my arms as he pulled away. He gave a weak smile and turned, walking towards the door and then paused to look up at the ceiling. “I should have reached out to you sooner,” he continued. “Whatever’s next, whatever insanity comes our way… I won’t make that mistake again.” He looked back to me. “May the Force be with you.”

I watched as he left the briefing room on Carrick Station. Another time I might have taken a glance downward to appreciate the view. However, all my training couldn’t hold back the dampness that began to pool in the corner of my eyes. His guilt, while I tried to encourage him otherwise, reflected my own. I turned and braced my hands against the holo console, where his had once been. And for the first time, since… I honestly cannot remember if it was some point after that first failed attempt against the Emperor or a little more recent than that… but perhaps the first time in quite a long time… I allowed myself to cry.

After a time, I turned to leave the room, ignoring a nagging sense that I wasn’t alone. I ran into a wall of Theron Shan, standing awkwardly out of the door, who then proceeded to wrap me tightly into a hug.

“I thought you had to go?” I choked out.

“I do, but that Sith was insistent... I get it now. I’m sorry.”

I wrapped my arms tighter around him, burying my face into his chest, “Don’t…”

He ran his fingers lightly down my back in a continuous motion. A few times I felt him about to speak, but he didn’t for a time. Something beeped on his wrist and I felt him sigh heavily. “Raincheck… I promise…” he said and kissed me on the forehead.

I just nodded and let him go. He offered a weak smile and motioned for me to head out first. As I did, Lord Scourge was just standing at the outside of the lift, waiting, staring at Theron with an unreadable expression.

“Right,” he paused, staring at the Sith pureblood in his way.

I sighed, “Let him go, Scourge.”

The older man gave a glance to me first, then looked back at Theron. He slowly stepped aside, but did not lose eye contact with the younger man as he slid past. Theron gave me a slight wave and a small smile as he punched in his destination in the lift.

“You didn’t need to do that… I am fine…”

“First, Jyana, you are a terrible liar. Second, you need to take care of yourself.”

I pursed my lips, looking at the elder Sith.

“Third, he needed to look past himself too.”

“Do you feel your point was made?” I raised an eyebrow.

“For now. We will see.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Let’s get going. I have a feeling Master Satele or Saresh have an idea of where I can be useful…”

I could sense a slight bit of distaste from Lord Scourge as I mentioned the Chancellor, but he did not argue and we took the lift and headed back to the Defender.

* * *

“I wondered if I’d find you here.”

I looked up from my meditation perch on a bench in front of one of the many waterfalls near the Jedi Temple on Tython. Grandmaster Satele Shan stood behind me, her hands behind her back, face serene yet kind. Grey specks had multiplied in her brown hair since the last I’d seen her. “I suppose I have gotten predictable when I’m on Tython,” I responded and looked back towards the waterfall.

“Everyone needs to find peace on their own time. This seems to be yours.”

I nodded. Looking up at the waterfall, I sighed softly. “Change is annoyingly difficult.”

“There is some peace in predictable routines. Some things don’t need to change.”

“True enough.”

She allowed silence to linger for a few minutes. I closed my eyes to just listen to the water as it flowed into the streams below. It’d been a few months since Ziost ceased to be a living world, and though the nightmares still lingered, they no longer occurred every night. I took a couple trips back to Rishi, going to Master Orgus’ old house and trying to remember the paths that he had suggested I take. Help people out, do the little things. Heal the sick, fix people’s technology so that they don’t get flooded, tiny little things I could do. I kept my ear to the wire though. Tried to follow the reports as they came in. Any hints that another Ziost was in the works. But there had been silence.

It wasn’t as if Theron had access to that information to forward me right now as it was. Not that he’d reached out to me either.

“The anger seems to have passed,” the Grandmaster said softly.

“There is little need to dwell on what cannot be changed,” I sighed a bit.

“To which do you refer: The Chancellor or Theron?”

I shrugged. “Both.”

“You disagree with his punishment.”

“It isn’t my place,” I said shaking my head, “I am more concerned with the blame he places on himself.”

Satele tilted her head curiously but remained silent.

“If I could take his burden from him, I would. But it will make him stronger. A better man, I think.”

“You care for him,” she responded softly.

I took a deep breath. “I know what he’s going through,” I deflected, “I bear similar scars I feel.”

She studied me in silence for a moment. “Some scars are necessary.”

“It is our scars that make us. Our pain, our regrets. Our joy, our sorrow. What is, is. What will be, will. We cannot turn back time, and even if we could, would we truly make different decisions?”

Satele shook her head. “No, we wouldn’t.”

She turned to look over at the waterfalls I had been focused on. I wondered for a moment if she was fishing for something, choosing to stay where she was. I didn’t allow myself to dwell too much on that and opted to return to what I had come here to do. Close my eyes, focus on the sound of the rushing water, and let the tranquility of the moment wash over me.

Sometimes, in stillness, in quiet, one can find peace. With all my training, meditating at a temple just made me restless. The quiet produced a pounding hum that drowned out my own calm, while the white noise provided by a waterfall gave me something to focus my mind on. Soothe the shaking of my knee that the Masters always had commented on: A prodigy at combat but she couldn’t stay still with meditation. Once I had discovered waterfalls on that world, it had become easier.

It was hard to think of Master Satele or Master Orgus as younglings with youngling restlessness. I never felt they would truly understand me now. But maybe they would.

What I would give to hear his reassuring voice again.

Or at least, just a hug.

“Attachments can be dangerous.”

Though my eyes were closed, I could not entirely control the twitch my right eye made at Master Satele’s quiet words rang through my mind. I opened my mouth and closed it. The quick response originally coming to mind would not be helpful, so instead I took a deep breath and opted to say nothing. I tried to clear my mind to the flow of the water over the rocks, as opposed to the rushing torrent between my ears, threatening to turn my cheeks red. I had no way to be sure what she was talking about, no way to be sure if she meant Master Orgus, who I had been thinking about at the moment of her words, or on Theron. She didn’t need me to snipe about how she didn’t really have much of a right to lecture me about feelings for her son. I definitely did not need that either. I simply needed peace.

“He cares for you,” stated Satele, with a slight push to her tone.

I opened my eyes slowly and gave her a side glance. Her eyes were closed, as if she was attempting to focus on the waterfall as well, or some other item that gave her peace. I took another breath in and then out, slowly, trying to relax my own heart.

“Jyana,” she spoke firmly.

“I came here to find some peace and some focus,” I sighed heavily, “Not to hear a lecture about the Jedi Code or some concerns about ‘Attachments.’”

She sighed a bit. “No lecture. Just concern.”

Emptying myself of emotion never worked for me. My eyebrow twitched in slight irritation. I tried to soothe my emotions so they didn’t radiate out my sleeve as others did. But I didn’t like the concept of denying my feelings or emotions either. I felt if I denied how I felt — however it was that I did — that would be the easiest thing the Emperor could latch on and pull on me. It was just as much of a slippery slope as embracing them or letting them fuel me could be.

But while I could express my slightly controversial thoughts on emotions to myself, I wasn’t really sure how to articulate them properly out loud. As well as I probably was overthinking the implications that I would be putting upon the Grandmaster herself. She had a son. She had some feelings for Theron’s father to at least get to that point. She’d also had decades of practice of cutting herself out and shielding her own feelings from showing. Whether she took time to herself to let herself feel whatever it was that she did in privacy or not, I had no way of knowing.

But what I could tell was pretty evident: She was concerned. For her own son.

Master Satele frowned slightly, but did not speak.

“How is Master Surro’s recovery?” I asked softly after a few minutes of silence.

“Slow, but there has been progress. Have you tried to speak with her?”

“I offered, but I remind her too much of her failure.”

The Grandmaster nodded. “In time.”

“She knows how to reach me should her decision change.”

She nodded in response as well and looked back to me. Whatever it was she had considered saying, she didn’t end up speaking aloud. It was difficult to read what was going on in her thoughts through the Force, but that was perhaps by design. She just gave me a curt nod and then walked back to the Jedi Temple.

I looked back towards the waterfall, closing my eyes again. Trying to focus on the whirlwind of the water instead of the whirlwind of dust upon the Ziost surface in my mind. Trying to focus on the peace and calm around me as opposed to the frantically growing louder beeping at my side.

Beeping at my side...

I blinked and looked down at the beeping and blinking holocomm. Tilting my head at it as I looked at the sender, I opened it.

“Hey,” Theron Shan appeared, scratching the back of his neck.

My heart skipped a beat. “Theron?”

He offered a small smile, still scratching the back of his neck and giving a glance to the side before looking at me directly through the holo. “About that rain check?”


	9. Promise

Across the din of Carrick Station, the pounding of my heart was the only sound I could focus on as I approached the cantina in the center of the promenade. I took a deep breath and sank into its rhythm, matching my steps to each thump. My eyes flickered between each patron in the cantina, focusing every so often on an individual: There was a blindfolded Miralukan at the bar, sipping on a light blue beverage, tilting his head ever so slightly towards the commotion behind him. A hulking Devaronian was talking loudly to a tiny greenish skinned Twi'lek, who shrank at each word as though struck by a heavy blow. Another man, a brown-haired thin human in a brown nondescript vest, slid up next to the Miralukan, also taking note of the loud display. 

It was far livelier than I had expected, but my knowledge of bar etiquette could leave a lot to be desired. Though I’m sure Doc would kindly tell me that the station’s cantina is tame compared to other planets. But that is a pondering for another time. 

Sure enough, my target was precisely where I’d expected him. It felt like a lifetime ago when we just met briefly to discuss the business dealings of a...  _ mutual friend _ who had been acting suspicious. I fidgeted with my button-up shirt, trying to pull it down as it did not completely cover my stomach. I was not normally self-conscious about it, given my typical attire, but this was different: the station had a chill to the air that I hadn’t accounted for. After straightening the shirt and brown vest, I took a quick glance at myself in the reflection of a pillar nearby. The vest and shirt combo, along with the dual-wielding belt, made me more like a gunslinger than a Jedi. Kira had been quite insistent that I should not look like a Jedi if I’m going on a date. Was this a date? I suppose it was. After all, I didn’t even have my weapons on me. I figured should an incident occur, I’ll just rely on my wits and the Force to come up with a solution.

It was a pity I always had to think in such a way. I’m sure all contingencies had been taken into account. I took a step in the aforementioned direction, keeping my senses open and my guard up. As I slid into the seat across from Theron Shan, I raised an eyebrow and glanced over the slightly unbuttoned henley underneath his trademark red jacket. “So…” I began, “About that rain check.”

His eyes didn’t leave my own as I settled into my seat, his brow furrowing only slightly before his gaze softened. His left arm was relaxed propped up along the top of the booth he was slouched into. “I’ve got a bit of time,” he began after a moment, crossing his legs, “Borrowed time, so not a whole lot, but should be enough to share a drink.”

I returned his studying gaze, glancing to the shirt he was wearing and the hint of flesh beneath the buttons, then back up to his eyes. “Is that a new shirt?”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah. You like it?”

“Is nice,” I said softly, my voice trailing off the rest of my thoughts as I inadvertently got lost in a lingering glance again towards the shirt’s opening.

He gave me a small wink and motioned towards the tiny Twi'lek over at the bar. She quickly made her way towards us, away from the now-shouting Devaronian with a grateful expression.

“Ever tried Mandalorian kri’gee?” Theron asked.

I tilted my head, curious. “No? A drink?”

He smirked. “Are you even a drinker?”

“I… partake… on occasion.”

He looked up at the Twi'lek, who was shaking her head towards me with her eyes wide. He tapped his finger on his mouth. “This might not be the drink for a beginner.”

I looked between the two, frowning. “I am not some delicate flower that needs protecting!”

His grin grew larger at my protest, then gave the Twi'lek waitress a wink holding up two fingers. She nodded subserviently, though giving me a glance of what could only be described as concern. Her trip to the bar was uneventful as she obtained the drinks, the earlier rowdy Devaronian nowhere to be seen. Neither the Miralukan nor the human were still at the bar either. 

Theron remained alert as we waited, eyes scanning the crowd. The silence between us only served to amplify the heartbeat pounding in my ears and the server seemed to have run all the way to Mandalore to retrieve our order. 

Soon enough, however, she returned and set the bottle in front of us with two glasses. She murmured the customary acknowledgment of our thanks in Huttese and asked us if there was anything else we needed to let her know. I nodded to her and asked simply for a menu while Theron skillfully poured the Mandalorian kri’gee into two glasses and slid the small tumbler over to me.

He raised his glass and tilted his head. “Anything to toast?” he asked.

I considered for a moment and raised my glass. “To a rain check.”

He smiled at me for that and nodded. “A rain check.” Then we both downed the glasses in one gulp.

I coughed and sputtered a few times as a fire raged through my senses. I could feel Theron’s amusement at my suffering before I heard his laugh.

“Want another?” he asked within the midst of his laughter.

I slid along the rounded bench closer to him and punched him in the shoulder before he could react. The leather of his jacket creaked at the amount of pressure and a small crease was left behind.

He straightened his coat a bit. “Hitting on me already?” he laughed.

I hit him again, finding myself giggling just a bit. “I’m tempted to say ‘Challenge Accepted’ but I sense that might be an unwise decision on an empty stomach.”

He was watching me with a smirk. Whether he was amused by my comment or watching me to see how the alcohol was going to affect me, I could not tell. After a moment of great consideration, he stated, “True. Very unwise. Very unbecoming for a lady of your station.”

“You’re the one that suggested… this… this...” I waved at the bottle, “Thing. Are you trying to get me drunk, Theron Shan?”

“Me?” he asked, putting a hand on his chest in what could only be described as mock hurt, “I would never. It is not my fault you decided to take my drink challenge on an empty stomach.”

The waitress slid a menu in front of me and I looked down at it for a brief second before Theron slid it away from me and pointed towards an item on the menu. I frowned a bit and took the menu back as the waitress left and looked down at it.

“Dumplings. You have a fondness for them if I remember correctly,” he explained. 

I tilted my head at him. “Street food festival on Coruscant. Before you sent me in to almost drown on Manaan. I remember.”

“Hey, you made it out…” he pouted slightly, sliding his hand over mine which was resting on top of the menu.

“Can’t say it was an altogether terrible experience.”

“Are your ears red from the drink?” He was smirking at me.

While indeed, the kri’gee had completely gone straight to my head, it wasn’t like I was going to let him in on that. Not willingly at least. “What?”

“You’re blushing from something and it’s gone to your ears.” He moved his hand from where it had been on top of mine and brushed his fingers lightly along the outer edge of my right ear. 

I shivered at the touch of his finger and bit my lip. I looked over at him and studied him closely. Sure enough, his cheeks and ears had a slightly reddish tint to them as well. “Excuse me? Look who’s talking.” I punched him in his shoulder. “Your face isn’t any better.”

He shrugged leaning back and resting both of his arms along the top of the booth seat. “It’s obviously a side effect of the kri’gee. I’m not the one who’d never had it before.”

“I should throw something at you.”

“Violence also seems to be a side effect of the kri’gee in some people,” he said, rubbing his chin for a moment in thought. 

How had I not noticed that he’d grown out his typical 5 o’clock shadow into a quarter of an inch beard before? I blame the henley. The way the light fabric and unbuttoned shirt laid on him was extremely distracting. 

His musing continued, “Maybe that’s why Mandalorians like it as part of their celebrations. Definitely something to investigate.”

I pursed my lips at him, debating a retort. Given that the one that popped in my mind was a stab at him being on administrative leave, I opted against it and decided to attempt a menacing glare.

“Are you okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Glaring at you menacingly. Is it working?”

He tried to smother a grin, the corners of his lips twitching upward despite his effort, and said softly, “So cute.”

I pouted. “Cute isn’t intimidating.”

He shook his head. “No. No indeed it is not.”

The Twi'lek waitress returned and set down a very large plate of dumplings. I felt a small rumble in my stomach as I realized  _ exactly _ how hungry I was. 

“Jyana,” Theron stated softly, “Are you already drunk?”

“No…” Then I hiccupped. I felt my ears heating up again as I sighed. “... Maybe.”

“After one drink huh…” he stated. He took one of the dumplings from the platter and offered it to me. “Have some food,” he smiled and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I won’t tell anyone.”

I gave him a dubious glance and reached to take the dumpling from him with his hand. He pulled it back and shook his head. I furrowed my brow in frustration and confusion, then looked up at him, still holding it out for me.  _ Oh.  _ I then leaned in cautiously and allowed him to feed me the first dumpling.

He winked at me and grabbed one for himself.

“Which dumplings did you get?” I asked as I picked up a different one. “Or did you order a variety?”

“I told her to surprise us.”

I furrowed my brow. “I did not notice you actually saying anything other than pointing at the menu?”

“There are many different languages, you know,” he said raising an eyebrow, “Some of which are not verbal.”

“Huh, so like thieves cant or something like that? I think that’s what it was called.”

He nodded a bit. “Something like that. Not something they teach at the temple?”

“Oh, they offer it should some desire to learn,” I said, “My skills laid elsewhere.”

“You do excel at what you do,” he smiled and took his second dumpling.

I smiled a bit and scratched the back of my neck, before frowning a bit. I felt a nudge lightly and then looked back over to him.

“None of that,” he whispered. “And you’re red again. That is definitely a fascinating development.”

I sighed heavily and gave him a half-hearted punch to his shoulder. “You stop that.”

He rubbed his shoulder lightly with a pout. “Want another drink?”

I stared, dubious, at the bottle of kri’gee. Before I answered though, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck raise lightly. “Theron?”

“Hm?”

“Are we being watched?”

“Human? Brown hair? Brown vest? Fairly unremarkable otherwise?”

I pursed my lips at the description. “Yes.”

“Dammit.” Theron slid slightly away from me in the seat. 

I raised my eyebrow at him. 

He fidgeted and bit his lip. Something told me that he hadn’t accounted for this particular contingency. He took a deep breath and stated quickly, “Act casual.”

I simply replied, “I don’t understand,” because I didn’t.

Before he could respond, the man in question had slid onto the edge of the bench next to Theron. “Shan,” he drawled out, “When were you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Balkar,” he growled. 

I raised an eyebrow between the both of them and reached for my empty glass and looked down at it, frowning.

“Jonas Balkar, SIS,” the newcomer continued, “An old friend of Agent Shan’s here.”

“An old annoyance is more like it.”

Jonas waved Theron’s comment off. He then studied the bottle in front of us. “Mandalorian kri’gee? Wow, Theron, that’s your idea for the first drink of the night?”

“And you have a better idea?”

Giving Theron a pointed look that clearly impled, “Of course I do, you idiot,” he shrugged and flagged the waitress down. “Allow me,” he said, exchanging a few hand gestures upon her arrival. She nodded and went back to the bartender. He looked back at us. “So: no introductions?”

Before I even opened my mouth to respond, Theron quickly stated, “What do you want, Balkar?”

“I was just in the area. Saw you here. Thought I’d say hello. Pity you won’t introduce me to the lady.” He reached his hand towards me. 

Theron put his hand on top of Jonas’ before the latter could take my hand with his. This time, I interrupted Theron’s objections and scooted closer to both of them. “Jyana is fine. Old friends, huh?”

Jonas’s smile broadened and he nodded. “We go way back.”

Theron slumped into his seat and looked back across the cantina. His eyes flickered between each currently visible patron. I followed his gaze and noticed that Kira had taken up residence at the bar next to a Mirialan lady in casual attire. 

“I could tell you so many stories.”

“Oh?” I leaned in, definitely intrigued. The waitress returned and put a large light green beverage in front of me. The rim of the glass was lined with brightly-colored rainbow salt and there was a holographic umbrella in it. I studied the drink before slowing reaching for it.

Theron halted my attempt. “Give me a moment,” he muttered.

“What, you don’t trust me?” Jonas laughed.

I looked between the two, curiously. Theron sighed and let me take it. I slowly sipped the drink, finding it surprisingly fruity. 

“With everything I do for you, Shan, a little trust sometime would be nice.”

“Like the last time you got me captured and my implants almost stolen?”

“That was just that one time. And I’d given you plenty of reports so you would have been aware had you just read them.”

“Right,” he sighed and looked over at me. The waitress set down a pair of tumblers filled with an amber liquid on ice in front of the two agents. 

“I feel like there’s a story here,” I stated after taking another sip of the fruity monstrosity.

“Oh there definitely is, but sadly a great deal of that is classified,” Jonas said. 

I raised an eyebrow, but opted to leave out the part that there was a great possibility that my clearance level in some respects exceeded his own. But I was not entirely sure how much the term Battlemaster weighed within the SIS, nor was I inclined to find out. Theron seemed to want to keep who I was secret, and if I was completely honest, I wanted to be discreet as well.

“I could tell you a great story that involves a goat,” he continued.

Theron quickly cut him off, “And we’re done here.”

“A goat?” I asked. 

“Excuse me?” a familiar voice cut through the conversation. I looked up to find Kira and the Mirialan woman from the bar standing in front of the table. Theron tilted his head at the intrusion and then a smirk crossed his lips.

“Hello ladies,” Jonas replied, “Having a fine evening?”

“Well, you see, this lovely lady beside me here has been waiting for some,” Kira paused a bit and looked at her companion, “Jonas Balkar was it?”

“Yes, Jonas,” the green-skinned lady nodded. 

“Yes. She’s been waiting for quite some time. Perhaps you all could help us find him?”

“He’s right here,” Theron spoke up, nudging the Agent beside him.

“Oh? Well how lucky are we then,” Kira grinned. “Pity though. I told her that if he didn’t show up, I’d happily spend some time with her.”

The Mirialan grinned, “Kira does seem to be far more entertaining company.”

“I would definitely not neglect you by bothering other patrons of the cantina.” 

“Now ladies,” Jonas interrupted and got up out of the booth, taking his glass with him, “I’m sure I can come to some more fascinating arrangement.” He started to lead them both away from Theron and me. 

Kira peeked back over her shoulder and winked. 

“Huh, he was supposed to be meeting someone himself,” Theron mused to himself. 

I raised an eyebrow over at him. “Are you filing this away for later?”

“Absolutely.”

I shook my head with a laugh. “I suppose I’m not supposed to ask you about the goat?”

Theron’s expression of mirth melted into one of dread. “Please don’t.”

“Aw,” I pouted slightly, “It sounds funny.”

He grumbled and took a long sip of his own beverage.

“Fine. I won’t.” I elbowed him in his arm. “Lighten up. The night is still yet young.”

He nudged me back and then smirked. “More dumplings then?” 

“Yes.” I nodded, taking one of the still warm dumplings from the platter and offering it to him. “Very much yes.”


End file.
